NEW YORK CITY HALLOWEEN PARADE TURNS LOWER MANHATTAN INTO GIANT COSTUME PARTY

In the true Broadway tradition of “the show must go on”, almost 70,000 people braved rain showers and occasional gusty winds last night to march in New York's 36th Annual Village Halloween Parade. The revelers, wearing costumes of every imaginable description, strolled and danced their way up Sixth Avenue, turning lower Manhattan into the world’s largest Halloween party with a spectacle of whimsy, politics and unbridled creativity. Ghosts, goblins, witches and giant skeletons were joined by everything from Michael JacksonMichael Jackson to General Robert E. Lee, Jedi Knights to Dr. Spock, Bill ClintonBill Clinton to Sarah PalinSarah Palin and many more. Multiple editions of Indiana Jones were present. Bernard Madoff and Richard NixonRichard Nixon shared space with Alice in Wonderland and several mad hatters. Two marchers, dressed in black, carried signs saying “Health Insurance Executives”. There was even a New Orleans jazz funeral, complete with music.

The parade’s theme was “Terra Incognita”, drawing parallels between the trepidation and hope of the early explorers with the economic uncertainty and yet opportunity of today. Dozens of volunteers carried a block-long “ocean” made of blue silk in a design created by Superior Concept Monsters, the official puppeteers of the parade. A flotilla of sailing ships floated above, accompanied by mythic sea creatures. Dragons, which often represented unknown lands in old nautical charts, lurked nearby.

Volunteers practiced bringing this maritime fantasy to life near the puppet workshops in upstate New York, said Donna Deeprose, a section captain and first time parade participant. Even with the practice, she continued “It happens as it happens. It’s not a choreographed dance. It just has to look like waves.”

Andrew Parker and Erin Carmody, from New York’s Lower East Side “by way of Kansas”, recreated one of rock music’s most famous couples, John Lennon and Yoko OnoYoko Ono. Channeling Lennon in a perfect British accent, Parker revealed the true reason for the Beatles’ breakup. “I still say it was Ringo who broke up the band,” he said, adding “It was all Ringo’s fault.” He also confessed to having returned from the afterlife “to give peace a chance,” but admits he still hasn’t gotten in touch with Paul McCartneyPaul McCartney.

The Parade began in 1973 as a neighborhood walk for the children of a Greenwich Village mask maker and their friends. In 2001, only weeks after the World Trade Center attacks, it featured a giant Phoenix rising out of the ashes. Several thousand Hurricane Katrina refugees took part in 2005. It is also listed in the book “100 Things to do Before You Die”