The Technician has been running for nearly 100 years, with the first issue published on Feb. 1, 1920. Throughout the years, NC State has seen many different events, from great successes to terrible tragedies and everything in-between. Time, and language itself, has changed over the years but for almost every major event, the Technician was there.

It’s that time of year again. Hillsborough Street will soon be flooded with creatures of all sorts, stumbling from club, to restaurant and back to club. Oh, and they will be in costumes. Halloween is back, but before you put on your bright-red Ken Bone sweater or pin a Jake from State Farm nametag to your shirt, take a look at how NC State has celebrated the night of terror throughout the years.  

The earliest mention of the holiday we could find in the Technician’s archives was in the Oct. 30, 1926. The first use of the word “Halloween” came in a humorous news-in-brief article titled “Paragraphics.” It stated the following:

“The spirit of the local Halloween celebration tonight will largely depend on the outcome of the argument on Emerson Field today.”

The “argument” referenced was a football game between NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill as advertised on the front page of the same issue under the headline “Wolfpack Meets Tar Heels Today on Emerson Field.”

On Oct. 28, 1932, NC State celebrated Halloween in a very 1932 way — a barnwarming party. On page six, under the title “Barnwarming,” Technician ran the following:

“Crawling through a hay tunnel filled with weird scenes and frightening creatures will be the way into the Barnwarming Saturday night in the gymnasium,” the article read. “King Halloween, in the form of a tremendous pumpkin […] will blink unearthly signals to his sixty eerie attendants peering through a dismal pine forest.”

The article goes on to mention that “the girls from Peace” were invited and the party planned to serve the following refreshments: ice cream, chocolate milk, cakes and peanuts.

If a barn party isn’t exciting enough, check out a Halloween-themed poem that ran in the Opinion section of the Technician on Oct. 29, 1982, titled “A Phantastic Trip.” The poem’s first two lines began:

“Imagine yourself alone in a dark graveyard scene, on the fabled ‘night of the specter’ you call Halloween.

Moonlight in full shines through skeleton trees, casting eerie shadows that cause you unease.”

And, eight lines later ended with this:

“The unholy night is shattered by a blood-curdling yell that fades into the depths as you fall straight into Hell.”

Pretty spooky. At the end of that decade, on the front page of the Oct. 30, 1989, issue, ran the story “Halloween gives everyone a chance to be young again.” The story advocated for several interesting costume suggestions.

“If you don’t have any money, get creative,” the article read. “Don’t wash your hair for two weeks and go out as Bob Marley. Put on your overcoat and high-top tennis shoes and be a flasher. Grab five friends, some rope, write Budweiser on your chests with magic marker and be a six pack. There is no limit on Halloween.”

For more costume suggestions, party coverage and maybe the occasional poetry, keep an eye on the Technician.