Palatine High School has wrapped up spirit week in preparation for the Homecoming dance this past Saturday. This year’s Homecoming theme was City of Stars.

“We start with the theme of the dance and that’s actually voted at the end of the year prior,” Student Council Advisor James Nowak said. 

Nowak talked about how the Student Council group picks the theme days at the beginning of the year based on the dance theme picked the previous school year.

Spirit week has been a long time tradition of Palatine High School. Nowak explained how there has always been spirit week the week before homecoming since he started teaching at Palatine 22 years ago.

“I do [think it gets the energy up] because it makes me get ready for Homecoming and I’m excited to dress up for the days,” Student Council President Dulce Nunez said. “It’s a really fun thing and all my friends do it too. They get really excited for that because it’s the week of Homecoming.”

Spirit week is a great way to get students excited for events like Homecoming because it gives them things to look forward to throughout the whole week.

Nowak explained how spirit week is also done the week of the winter dance and the week before winter break, however it hasn’t been around as long as Homecoming spirit week.

“[My favorite part of spirit week] is enjoying the moment,” Nunez said. “Making memories with my friends and taking pictures with them dressed up, I really enjoy having a week where we could all just be goofy and not really care.”

The days last week were Color Match Monday, Twin Day Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, Dress Like a Star Thursday, and Class Color Friday.

“My favorite part is when I hear kids talking about not only the ones they saw but the ones they did,” Nowak said. “When you hear people talking about it in an excited way, you know that the ideas you put out there are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. People are having fun and getting excited and talking about what’s going on and that’s really what it’s all about.”