Magical moments for muggles and magic users alike

It’s that time of year Mustangs. The time when hearts are broken, relationships are created, and some guy takes his shirt off at the Saturday dance. What a magical week — pun not intended.

This year’s theme is Harry Potter and I adore the theme. The big thing is that it allows for more focus toward the theme itself. Oftentimes, the themes feel broad, which hinders their ability to provide a clear cut underlying theme behind all the events.

For example, the past two themes were Light Up the Night and Disney. Though they may have been interesting ideas for the dance itself or decorations, the days of the week were still pretty general ideas with no theme connecting them. This made homecoming week nearly identical to the spirit week in the spring.

On the other hand, in 2014 the theme was Back to the Future in order to look at the past because of the school’s 50th anniversary. This was a great, out-of-the-box theme because it allowed all the different facets of the week connect. Even dress-up days were connected with each day being about a different decade.

Monday had kids dress up in traditional 60s garb, while Wednesday looked to the 80s. Similarly, with this year’s theme being Harry Potter, it opens the door for so much creativity in the various homecoming week activities. The school is hosting a Movie in the Park event on Tuesday open to the whole DGS community, including the families of students and teachers, that will show the first Harry Potter movie.

Furthermore, each dress up day at school has a name relating to the theme such as Weasley day or Quidditch day. Though these words may sound foreign to non-fans of the series, they’re just creative names with “normal” objectives like wearing sports gear or twinning with a friend.

I think the theme this year is a very effective one because it allows students to fully display their creativity and possesses the ability to have various, unique events that all connect to the theme. It helps to wrap up a memorable week of festivities into one great product that both students and teachers can enjoy, even if they’re not a Potterhead.

 

We don’t want wizards

When homecoming week starts and the activities unfold, people become enthusiastic. Students’ phones will be lighting up with friends attempting to coordinate dress-up plans and to meet up at the various events.

But homecoming week is like dark chocolate, some people love it while another, equally large group despises it.

This relates to this year’s Harry Potter theme, and the theme comes with some issues that students will have to come to terms with.

Some love the idea of having a homecoming with a theme, but from my perspective it seems to be a double-edged sword. It won’t end well.

Unfortunately, you will have students who can’t participate as much as they would like because they didn’t read the books or see the movies. Not to mention that this year’s theme is revolving around a “small series” while last year’s theme revolved around a company that has pumped out roughly 161 movies and even more personalities to choose from.

There will be some students that will be joining in on the fun with twinning on Weasley Day; however, some students will be out of the loop on some of the lingo.

Despite the attempt of making homecoming week fun, those planning it have to realize that many feel that it’s way too childish. We are told in high school that we are being prepared to join the real world and to become adults, but instead we are being treated like middle schoolers with a tacky idea for a theme.

Let’s not forget to think about music. When it comes to what you dance along to, you can’t place a certain genre on a wizard based theme. Unlike last year you were able to dance to Disney-theme oriented music.

I believe that the theme is not exciting and homecoming week will be pretty bland. This is because the theme is treating us like children instead of young adults. Don’t be surprised if this year’s turnout for events is low because not every student is the next Harry Potter superfan.