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[/fusion_text][fusion_text]Earlier in October this year, the CN Yang Scholars’ Club Social & Welfare Portfolio successfully organised the annual CN Yang Scholars’ Club Halloween event. With ingenuity and creativity, ‘Haunted Hogwarts’ was immensely successful and we would like to present an account of the event from the perspectives of the Press & Publicity Portfolio and our Writing Subcommittee. [/fusion_text]
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BY CNYSC PRESS & PUBLICITY PORTFOLIO
‘Now sit on this chair and the Sorting Hat will decide on which House you belong to…’
A sorting hat to sort us into our respective houses before entry into Hogwarts
Themed ‘Haunted Hogwarts’, CN Yang Scholars’ Club Social & Welfare Portfolio incorporated elements from the famed Harry Potter series and transformed the Crescent and Pioneer Hall Function Hall into an elaborate, creepy (but no less magical) scaled-down version of Hogwarts. From a life-sized poster of Platform 9 ¾ to dressing up in Hogwarts robes, little expense was spared to make Halloween a truly magical and fun-filled event for all scholars and staff.
Life-sized poster of Platform 9 3/4 and Hogwarts robes
To kick-start the event, we were first sorted into our respective ‘Houses’ using a ‘sorting hat’. Personalised tarot cards bearing our Facebook profile pictures were distributed as souvenirs, and facial markers were used to draw lightning bolts, glasses, and Weasley freckles.
Mingling with our batch mates and catching up with those whom we’d not seen in a while, we were soon shuffling into our Houses to begin with the team event. Staying true to the theme, we grabbed our broomsticks and readied ourselves for the first game of the evening, Quidditch Relay. With masking tapes on wooden floors to mark our tracks, players had to spin on the spot, hop onto their broomsticks and race to the other side. A bucket sat on the opposite end for us to toss Ping-Pong balls into and Slytherin eventually emerged victorious.
Dinner was a generous affair with shrimp-paste chicken, cream puffs, stir-fry tofu, curry vegetables and much more. As with typical CN Yang Scholars’ Club gatherings, we quickly intermingled during dinner to form large circles regardless of cliques or seniority.
Enjoying a sumptuous dinner as we sat in circles
Dinner was soon followed by breakout games and Exam Welfare Package (EWP) giveaways. With a Fortune-Telling booth, Evolution booth, and a ‘Spell Fight’, we had tremendous fun competing with our peers and getting to know our seniors (some of whom were away on exchange programmes) better.
The night drew to a close all too soon with our customary lucky draw. Three winners walked away with an alarm clock, a Superman apron and a mini blender, and tokens were presented to three of our ‘Best Dressed’ scholars.
One of our ‘Best Dressed’ winners (‘Professor Quirrell’)
As we proceeded to collect our EWPs filled with snacks and drinks for our late-night study sessions, there was an unspoken agreement that Haunted Hogwarts had made our Monday evening and near-exam blues more bearable and enjoyable than we could have hoped for.
[/fusion_tab][fusion_tab title=”Shu Ning’s Perspective” icon=””]BY LIM SHU NING
For eight long years I have waited. Several times I almost gave up. But at last, on 26 October 2015, my wait ended, and I finally received my admission letter to Hogwarts. “Report next week with three sets of robes, cauldron, books, wand and a cat/owl/toad”, it said. I was undaunted by the fact that the letter seemed to have an adjective “Haunted” in front of “Hogwarts”. It will be fine, I assured myself.
And so, that is how I found myself being sorted into Ravenclaw by a talking hat and then led into a darkened function hall to have my face painted. “Take off your specs,” commanded a mysterious figure in black, wielding crayons in my direction. Is this the spectre haunting Hogwarts?? I meekly obeyed, wondering what was to happen to my face. Around me I could see some Hufflepuffs with freckles, Gryffindors with lightning scars, and Slytherins with green eyebrows. A short time later, it dawned on me. This exceptionally friendly undead from the Social and Welfare Committee was drawing spectacles. After telling me to remove my spectacles. Alright.
Soon after that, it was time for the games! We solved interesting riddles while taking turns to fly around on broomsticks. Other than the occasional zombie sighting, haunted Hogwarts turned out to be as safe as regular Hogwarts. That is, not safe at all. I soon found myself in a spell duel, desperately shouting arcane idioms in hopes of making it out alive.
Finally, after surviving countless trials and tribulations, not the least of which was beating Voldemort himself at scissors, paper, stone, it was time to receive my welfare package. In it I found many useful things to aid my studies in Hogwarts. It included a foolscap pad to record my magical calculations, snacks to fuel my villainous plotting, and best of all, kiddie toys to destress.
Me, temporarily distracted from diabolical plans (photo by Neo Jing Ci)
Before I knew it, it was time to graduate. Hogwarts lives on in our hearts.
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