Students Trick-or-Treat in Lamont at First-Ever ‘Lamonster Mash’

UPDATED: November 10, 2022, at 2:18 a.m.

Students made dolls, trick-or-treated, and watched black-and-white films at Lamont Library on Friday to celebrate Halloween at the library’s first-ever Lamonster Mash.

Librarian for Undergraduate Support Yoonha Hwang, who co-organized the event, said part of its goal was to “bring a little bit of excitement” to the term “Lamonster” and make students more comfortable using the library’s resources. Students who haunt Lamont’s study spaces late at night are often dubbed “Lamonsters” by their peers.

During the event, attendees decorated colorful plastic masks with buttons, feathers, and jewels and created “spell books” using old recipes printed from the Houghton Library archives. The recipes included ways to counter the plague, remove pimples, fix dropsy, preserve oranges, and pickle eels.

Many attendees flocked to one craft station to make dolls from yarn, pipe cleaners, glue, and wooden beads.

“I think the highlight was the doll making,” Madison J. Davis ’26 said.

One attendee made a hippo, while another made Baby Yoda. Other students made well-known Halloween monsters like Dracula and werewolves.

“It's definitely a lot of fun. I'm very glad they have this,” Jennifer “Jenny” Hong ’23 said. “I haven’t made a craft in years.”

In addition to craft making, students stopped by offices and exhibits in the library to trick-or-treat. Alice L. Liu ’26 said the event allowed her to explore more of Lamont.

“I actually went to the user research center,” she said. “I didn’t even know that existed before.”

At the first trick-or-treating station, Jess Cohen Tanugi, Lamont’s visualization specialist, handed out paper bags for candy collection, candy, pop sockets, and other Harvard Library knick-knacks.

“I love it — It's so cool,” Tanugi said about the event. “It's a great way to talk to students.”

In an interview before the event, Hwang said the idea stemmed from an August conversation she had with co-organizer Susan Gilroy, who serves as the librarian for undergraduate programs for writing.

“We were just talking about events we'd like to see at the library, and I mentioned to her I'd love to do some sort of trick-or-treating at the library event,” they said. “It just grew from there.”

Hwang added that many students feel a "sense of endearment" for the nickname "Lamonster."

“Some of them wear it like a badge of pride,” she said.