Here are the 5 best Halloween parades in America
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Once a year, the streets towns across America transform into a scene from the darkest nightmare— OK, with plenty of silly and sexy sprinkled in.
If you missed your town’s zombie crawl (most of the biggest ones happened before Halloween day), no fear. Er, actually, do fear. You still have the chance to be terrified by costumed ghouls staggering down the street.
Here are the top five Halloween parades worth traveling for, and many of them happen on Oct. 31.
New York City: The theme for this year’s 41st Village Halloween Parade is the Garden of Earthly Delights. See puppets, musicians, dancers, artists and thousands of people bearing their costume through the streets of New York. Note: You’re welcome to march, but only if you come in costume.
Las Vegas: At dusk, watch the Halloween parade march through downtown Vegas. And this year, for the first time, the city also will host a second, unrelated parade, the Nevada Parade, which kicks off in the morning. Leave it to Vegas to have parades all day.
Salem, Mass.: Not surprisingly, the home of the Salem witch trials celebrates Halloween all month long. In addition to seances, tours, haunted hotels and costume contests, Salem has multiple parades, including the annual Haunted Happenings Grand Parade and a pet parade. The biggest festivities are on Halloween night, when you can take a ghost tour of the Beacon Hill neighborhood. Wear a costume, and the tour is like its own spooky parade through town.
Toms River, N.J.: This town’s 76th annual Halloween parade claims to be the world’s best, and calls Toms River the “Halloween capitol of the universe.” We’re talking more than 100,000 spectators and thousands of floats and participants in the parade. Can’t make it? Witness the wild action live online.
Philadelphia: The Spruce Hill Halloween parade is ideal for kids. Spectators watch in costume and cheer the marchers on before they hit the houses for trick-or-treating. Although the parade itself is no night in New York’s Village neighborhood, it is part of a greater Halloween package that makes Philly stand out. The city offers ghost tours, horror flicks, flashlight tours of a museum and even a ghost ship “terror cruise.”
