Students Revel In Fall Holiday

Among frights this Halloweekend it was debatable which proved scariest: Sarah Palin (Windsor G. Hanger ’10) fraternizing with constituents at the Owl Saturday night, or Dr. Frank-N-Furter (James P. Fitzpatrick ’12) roaming the Yard on Friday.

From House and final club parties to a field trip to Mt. Auburn Cemetery, students braved the elements to find an abundance of entertainment in honor of All Hallow’s Eve. At Harvard, Halloween was a Thursday through Saturday affair.

Before sundown on Friday, 15 brave students from English 176: “The 19th-Century American Novel” ventured out to Mt. Auburn Cemetery with professors Elisa New and Jason Stevens to visit the grave of Harriet Jacobs, an abolitionist originally from North Carolina, and discuss 19th century funerary culture.

“The cemetery walk was planned as part of our study of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin—one text of several we have read that takes an interest in the boundary between life and death,” New said. “The demise of Calvinism and the rise of Unitarianism and how it made places like Mt. Auburn possible.”

Just before dusk, Stevens read the students a ghost story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

In Eliot on Friday night, party-goers enjoyed American cultural history in a slightly different way while upperclassmen packed into the Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub.

“Of the 12 decorated rooms in Eliot, the America room was by far the best decorated place I saw this weekend,” said Brett L. Silverman ’12, “I felt like I was on a set for some Old Western flick.”

Among some of the décor were hanging American flags, country music, and murals of Chuck Norris, bald eagles, apple pie, and a baseball bat.

Some Harvard students showcased their creativity in elaborate costume. Jonathan P. Finn-Gamino ’12, some freshman might know him better as Borat or “the kid who wore the green mankini to Annenberg,” painted himself green the next night. With a bandana over his face, and a shell made out of chicken wire and plaster, Gamino morphed into a teenage mutant turtle.

While students said they enjoyed the festivities some professors just attempted to “survive the day.”

Economics professor N. Gregory Manikw was among the professors surrounded by 10 eighth graders enjoying pizza and horror flicks in his family room. Scary.