October 31 has been and gone and I feel as though I should give a little wrap up of my first American Halloween.
I didn't realise but Halloween is a whole weekend thing, not just the day of, being Sunday this year. People generally celebrate at work on Friday, then over the whole weekend. Some locals told me that they get 2 costumes, as they're going to more than one Halloween party. It's a fancy dress weekend festival!
Not knowing much about Halloween I did a little research and found out that it has Irish roots and is said to be linked to a festival that celebrates the end of the 'lighter half' of the year and the start of the 'darker half', the start of Winter. The ancient Celts believed this to be the time of year when the border between this world and the 'Otherworld' became thin, allowing spirits to pass though. So costumes and masks were donned to ward off harmful spirits. Fast forward a few centuries and Halloween seems more of an excuse for men to dress as women, and women to wear as little as possible!
At work on Friday there was a best dress & decoration competition and an invite to employees children to come in and 'trick or treat'. The whole office was kitted out. Some teams went NUTS with their decos and they even had a haunted hall set up with ghosts and ghouls hanging from the ceiling. My team did a group thing and dressed as The Olympic Norwegian Curling Team, which was the Marketing Director's brain child and something she's been planning since last year. Yes. Loud patterned pants were the order of the day. And candy galore! Seeing the little kids dressed up was too cute! Here's some pics...
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| The front desk at FCL USA |
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| A cemetery |
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| The haunted hall |
Sal arrived just in time for the Sat night leg of celebrations. With so many parties popping up all over the city it was hard to choose which to attend. But we finally booked tickets to a rooftop terrace in Midtown, mingled with the locals and took in all the creative costume-ing (and drank a little too much) all under the watchful eye of the Empire State. Where's Wally (or Waldo as it's known here) and Mario & Luigi seemed to be very popular costume choices this year.
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| Luigi & Mario (aka Turtle from Entourage) |
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| DJ Where's Waldo |
Sunday afternoon and two sore heads later, we trekked down to Greenwich Village on a mission to see the massive Village Halloween Parade. It's a people's parade so anyone can march and anything goes. The Thriller Zombie dance troupe was a stand out... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8_qz3rAqms
We couldn't see much but taking in all the costumes in the crowd was great. Note to self, get to a high vantage point next time. People were climbing up on top of bins and up traffic lights to see. There were masses of people, 2 million apparently, which I thought would of offered more of a buffer from the cold. Afraid not. Happy Halloween!
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| A scary Maccas employee |
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| The Parade crowd |
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| Parade puppets |
