This year, the EHHS junior and senior prom theme was masquerade, where everyone was invited to wear masks with their formal outfits. The goal was to create a sense of mystery and intrigue and a call back to the formal events of history.

The prom was held on Friday, May 23, 2025, from 6-10 P.M. at Cascade Fine Dining: 180 Sherman Avenue, Hamden, CT, 06514. Juniors and seniors were allowed to go, but could bring freshmen and sophomores as guests. Outside dates were allowed to come as long as they were under the age of 21. Any outside date must have a school ID or a normal ID along with a letter from their school or job stating that their student and employee should be allowed to go to the prom with their date, along with a valid reason.  

Seniors Hannah Dudley, Kimberly Carrera, and Gonul Celik, the senior class officers, mutually decided on masquerade as the theme of prom this year. Hannah says they got the idea for a masquerade for Homecoming, but didn’t do it, so they decided to do the masquerade theme for prom instead. If people did not bring their own mask, as a take-home “gift,” the committee provided hand-held masks at every table.

Masquerade was created in the 14th and 15th centuries, but became modernized in the 17th and 18th centuries.  Now, in the 20th century, we are modernizing the masquerade theme by dancing in our own way that we prefer instead of dancing in lines, the same way everybody else is dancing. We are also making these events public, whereas back in the day, you had to be formally invited by the host of the ball. Masquerades were a very popular formal ball dance party during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. For these balls, certain people would be invited, and they’d be told what to wear, and they’d have to stick to a certain theme. When masquerades first started in the 15th century, nobody wore ball gowns like you may have seen in movies and TV shows; they all wore costumes and masks to hide their identity and eliminate social boundaries since nobody knew who was who.