Students at Woodbridge High share the holidays and traditions they celebrate with their friends and families to enjoy the fall season. 

For instance, sophomore Yuki Matsumura and junior Ava Saucedo enjoy celebrating Halloween with their friends and family. 

“Trick-or-treating with friends is very interesting and I love just dressing up and having [the] opportunity to wear clothes that are not usually worn at school,” Matsumura said. 

Matsumura has been Hermione Granger, a Coca-Cola can and one of the ponies from My Little Pony and is unsure of who or what she wants to be this year.

“For Halloween, we usually go away and we do trick-or-treating in a different city … I love Halloween because you can dress up or you can get candy,” Saucedo said. “For us personally, it’s more like a movie night and then candy, which is great.” 

Some movies Saucedo enjoys watching on Halloween are The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Conjuring and Coraline. 

Halloween is a great opportunity to dress up as a character or practically anything else for a night and to leave the world of stress caused by school to go outside and trick-or-treat with friends. 

In addition to a fun-filled Halloween, Thanksgiving is another exciting holiday to get together with friends and family.

Sophomore Chloe Yang enjoys celebrating Thanksgiving and explains how her family celebrates. 

“Some years we visit my dad’s side of the family, so then we typically eat Chinese food…instead of traditional Thanksgiving food,” Yang said. “And then if we’re on my mom’s side of the family, then it’s usually more traditional Thanksgiving food…we just use it as a time to be thankful for family.”

Out of the many fall holidays and traditions celebrated around the world, each person has their favorite. Saucedo, Yang and Matsumura share more about their favorite family-filled and memory-creating traditions. 

Saucedo’s favorite fall holiday is Thanksgiving because it brings her family together. 

“The day of Thanksgiving, all the family meets at one house and we watch the football games that come on and my grandma makes a bunch of food and all the cousins get together. We’re so busy that this is the only time that we’re all together, so it’s really nice,” Saucedo said. 

Yang’s favorite fall tradition is a game she used to play with her family during Thanksgiving that brings back many joyful memories.

“I like when we’re all eating around the table and everyone’s talking … when I was younger, we played a game with spoons and forks and you basically had to remember … this is a cat and this is a dog or something like that with the spoons and the forks. And it just made everybody laugh because people kept messing up,” Yang said. 

Matsumura’s favorite fall tradition is Shigisan, a Japanese tradition celebrating girls who turn 3 or 7 years old and boys who turn 5, especially because she gets to spend time with her siblings. 

“My favorite would be the Shigasan ceremony because it’s really fun to just dress in this beautiful clothing and take pictures with my siblings,” Matsumura said. 

What makes these fall holidays and traditions so special is the joy and warmth created by the gathering of families and friends.