‘Harry Potter’ home returns for Halloween • The Yellow Springs News

On recent Halloween nights, Yellow Springs resident and Wright State University French professor Jean-Michel Lamoine made it his mission to bring a taste of magic to the holiday festivities, attracting local trick-or-treating enthusiasts. It delights with an immersive experience that you can enjoy. The world of the “Harry Potter” book and movie series.

In 2020, the pandemic brought magic to a brief halt, but this Halloween, after a two-year hiatus, Lamoine turned the garage of her home on East Davis Street into an immersive immersion for a burgeoning group of young witches and wizards. It turns it into a mold experience again, providing detailed decoration. , with lots of interactive displays and treats.

Lamoin’s love for Harry Potter began while he was teaching in Oklahoma. During this time, a student encouraged me to read the series. When he picked up his first book, he said he was instantly hooked.

“After the first half, I wanted to continue. [reading the series]So I got to the second and like everyone else I was waiting for the third and waiting for the next one.

After giving out candy for two years after Lamoine moved to Yellow Springs in 2015, he began to realize that his Halloween experience was a little different. He spoke with his neighbor and they both came to an agreement.

“we [were] There weren’t as many people as there used to be, so it made me sick,” Lamoin said. “We looked at each other and said, ‘We have to do something.'”

And Lamoine certainly took action. He started his ‘Harry Potter’ project in 2018. This is a way to do something fun and creative with the changing seasons, to soothe the emotions that come with it.

“I don’t know, I was a little depressed,” he said. “Look, the weather is changing. It’s a little disappointing.”

This year, the transformed Lamoine’s House features the same Hogwarts-inspired opulence as past years: moving portraits, a divination section with authentic tarot card readers, performers depicting the ghosts of Hogwarts, Wailing Myrtle, the reconstructed Diagon Alley, the library and post office, and cotton candy, butterbeer, and quintessential Halloween candy color-coded to match each Hogwarts house.

Lamoine said that “Harry Potter” is more than just wizards, witches and wands to him – the boundaries of Hogwarts permeate his life through the pages.

“It’s magical, it’s full of danger, honestly. The story is really fascinating, like a traditional structure. A young child who knows nothing becomes a hero,” Lamoine said. “I loved this.”

But he said his dedication to the fantasy world didn’t mean he ignored controversial statements made in recent years by JK Rowling, author of the “Harry Potter” series. Famous for making a series of posts on media site Twitter containing transphobic comments, the author has since doubled down on those statements. Lamoine said this discouraged him and motivated him to re-evaluate the author.

“How can the creation be separated from the Creator?” he said. “It’s bothering me a lot. So on the one hand you have beautiful memories from books and now from movies and now you have this kind of thing going on. It is becoming.”

Lamoine took her disappointment with Rowling into her own hands. He handcrafts canes, ornaments and props with his neighbors, friends and family to avoid funding the authors resulting from purchasing themed merchandise.

In 2019, Lamoine received a letter from a parent in the community thanking them for making their children happy with the event and set-up. With community trick-or-treat-her events canceled in 2020, Lamoine was unable to captivate her neighborhood. Then, in 2021, Lamoine decided to distribute only her candy due to ongoing pandemic concerns. This year we will be hosting both indoor and outdoor events as a precaution.

When Lamoine didn’t install the decorations in 2021, he estimated that 250 people asked him where the “Harry Potter House” was. Clearly, his work brought joy to the community. And as happy as the home made the children, Lamoine said they weren’t the only ones who experienced joy in immersing themselves in the magical world.

“In fact, the happiest are the young adults,” Lamoine said. “They are so happy to be back in that world again. It really means a lot.”

The enjoyment of the event and the experience it brings to the community is stressful. Lamoine begins preparations for Halloween at the end of August.

“We have to rethink every time and we change everything based on our experience,” Lamoine said.

He described the process as an investment of both time and money. For all the care, energy and time it takes to put together an authentic “Harry Potter” experience, it’s worth it for Lamoine.

“Making something, making something is fun. If you don’t make something, I don’t think life is interesting,” Lamoine said. “If I’m doing something that doesn’t use my imagination and creativity at all, it’s a waste of my time.”

And this year, the stakes are a little higher for Lamoine – he’s also making promises to keep with his loved ones.

“My niece and mother are coming from France,” Lamoine said. “Halloween is not celebrated in France in a big way. [my niece] I love Harry Potter because of me. ”

To experience the “Harry Potter” exhibit, visit Lamoine’s House at 117 E. Davis Street on Beggar’s Night Monday, October 31 from 6-8pm.

*The writer is a freelance news reporter, majored in English at Wright State University, and editor-in-chief of the newsroom for the university’s news publication, The Guardian. She is interested in rhetoric, English literature, and sports and music.she can be contacted at lewis.594@wright.edu.