For most, Halloween is a time to dress up in costumes and see how much candy they can get by the end of the night. But for people involved with Millikin’s English Club, the season of Halloween means one thing: Poe in the Pit.

Poe in the Pit is an annual tradition here at Millikin hosted near the end of October usually a day or two before Halloween.

This year, the Poe in the Pit event is a notable one as it is the last year it will be held in the actual pit due to upcoming renovations on campus next year. During this event, members of the English Club read the works of the early American poet Edgar Allen Poe in the pit in the lower part of Staley Library outside of the honors lounge.

Though this year the event moved inside to the honors lounge about half way through the event due to the chill in the air. Besides reading the works of Edgar Allen Poe, there were also other events through the night such as refreshments being served during and prior to the event, a costume contest sponsored by the event and also an original works writing contest that was also sponsored by the event.

The night had a reasonable sized turnout with many different English Club members attending as well as a number of non-English Club members coming out to the event. As part of the tradition, several members of the English Club picked from different works by Poe to read to those in attendance. This year included many pieces of Poe’s most famous poems and short stories such as “The Raven,” “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat”.

Many of Poe’s works are considered to be Gothic literature, which is a very popular genre of literature to be read around the Halloween season. This is one reason that Edgar Allan Poe has been chosen as the key author for this event year after year.

Students who attended the event were encouraged to wear a costume to the event and participate in the costume contest. Then after the first one of Poe’s works was read, all those who participated came to the center of the room and winner was chosen by applause. Whichever participant got the loudest applause was the winner of the contest.

Later in the night, after the stories by Poe were read, the event moved inside to get out of the wind chill and the reading of the original works started. During this portion of the event, students were encouraged to read from works that they had written.

Several students read their own pieces and many kept with the Gothic literature genre theme for the night. In a similar fashion to the costume contest, after everyone was done reading their works, there was a vote held by applause and whichever reader or writer got the most applause was declared the winner of the writing contest.

This year, it was hard to tell who had the most applause so the members of English Club had to improvise. This year voting went by the ballot method in which the students who attended the event were given a slip of paper and had to write down who they thought won the event. Luckily after that, a winner was declared, this year the winner of the writing contest was Abigail Weiser who read an original poem of hers while her brother Isaac played the guitar to accentuate the piece.

This event, hopefully will continue into next year despite the renovation, hopefully English Club will be able to find a new venue for this event, and it can continue on for many more years to come.