My first Tar Heel Halloween experience

My friends and I (left) dressed as our favorite beverages in Morrison residence hall before venturing to Franklin Street on Halloween.

Halloween on Franklin Street: I’ve heard about the legendary event for years, but never knew exactly what it consisted of. As first years, my friends and I were eager to participate in the Carolina tradition, and we now know what a successful Heeloween is made of.

Costumes. There was talk of Halloween costumes months in advance. It’s tricky to come up with a costume that’s original, easily identifiable and not too complicated or expensive to make. After months of debate and a rainy, cold trip to Target, a few of my friends and I decided to go as our favorite beverages. I dressed as a coffee cup, my roommate was a juice box, and two of our other friends went as a Mountain Dew and a YooHoo. We made our costumes using poster-board, Sharpies and string.

Timing. Franklin street was closed off to traffic from 9-11:30, but everyone had to pass through security before joining the crowd. We arrived at Franklin around 10:00 (so that there were a lot of people already there) and left around 11:00 (to avoid the rush of people who left at 11:30.) Franklin was so crowded that at times we could barely move, but the biggest challenge was staying together while still meeting up with other friends and taking pictures with interesting costumes. Among my favorite costumes were a couple of Cook-Out milkshakes, lots of Mario & Luigi couples, binders full of women and a hanging chad (which is from my favorite TV show, How I Met Your Mother.)

Two of my friends went together as Mario and Luigi from the popular video game.

Post-Franklin. After leaving Franklin Street, we met up with a group of other people at Rams Head dining hall to get some food (all the restaurants on Franklin were closed!) and then returned to my residence hall (which had high security for the night) to de-costume. After changing into regular clothes, we all piled into one room for several hours of Catch Phrase playing and Paranormal Activity watching.