Halloween special

People started decorating their doorways already weeks before the last Saturday of October. It crossed our minds that in this neighborhood of ours it even might be that they pay someone to do the decorations for them – they looked so professionally done. And when the Halloween day came, we could see that not only the decorations of houses were well done but people had really put energy and time in decorating themselves. There were witches, cartoon characters, politicians, musicians, clowns, cats, vampires, small police- or firemen walking on the streets.

The exciting atmosphere of the day was visible all day but when we entered the metro to go to the Greenwich Village Halloween parade it really started to grow. Sitting in the metro, my Venice mask on (L was kind of a phantom of the opera), on the other side Captain Hook and an angel, on the left a vivid bee I couldn’t help sighing that this is something big, a happening that unites lots of the people in New York City and it made myself think that I live (and also take part) in their community.

When the fully blocked subway arrived at Spring Street station we scrambled out and started looking for the beginning of the parade. When we found it we had to wait for about an hour for the parade to start off. At first it was depressing that we couldn’t move: I was supposed to take pictures for my photography course and now there was just a big bunch of excited people standing close to each other. It also started raining cats and dogs and we were soaking wet by the time we left the parade. But before the parade started, I was obliged to take pictures of people from very close range. And we noticed that in fact those were the best pictures of the night. And how people liked to pose! It seemed they were all dressed up just for being seen, and of course the parade was for that.

When the parade finally started we felt comfortable of being free to move and see all the different costumes and pass by the different bands that were making the music for the parade. We saw dancing and incredibly well done costumes. But as the rain didn’t stop we walked quite quickly to the end of the parade. All in all, we still had a party to attend.

The party took place in Brooklyn and on those blocks there were several industrial buildings. Luckily someone had had an idea of turning those buildings into concert and party places. We had heard about this “Last Masquerade” party from a friend. Apparently someone else had also heard about it: when we arrived after having changed and dried clothes at home, the line for the entrance of the party was about 300 meters. But as we were really curious about it, we decided to stay.

Of course when we would have been the next ones to go in, we were told that there would be an hour’s door shut. “Too crowded inside” the doorman shouted. Well the building, although looking like a big building, had taken quite many people inside…

As we had heard that the party uses several buildings in the neighborhood, we walked some blocks to find the other locations. We found one of them and surprisingly we got in without even paying the 20 dollars entrance fee! It looked pretty artistic inside with the video projections and gold-painted branches of trees. On the roof there were live bands playing and one of them really got our legs shaking. I don’t know the name but here’s a picture of the singer.

We spent an hour at the party and then found our way to the metro. Metro travel was still interesting with all the tired Halloween characters, like Cruella deVille leaning on one of the Dalmatians…

Funnily, the next day when we started our trip to the cemetery, I was pleased to see that people were once more looking normal.

E