Every year on October 31st, Greenwich Village, New York hosts the famous Village Halloween Parade. The Parade mixes music, entertainment, great costumes, and lots of community fun for the millions of visitors who come to the area to watch every year.

The Halloween Parade tradition started in 1973 when mask maker Ralph Lee did an impromptu live exhibit of his masks with the local children. Instead of trick-or-treating as they traditionally did, the children dressed in Lee’s amazing masks and walked around to their own homes in The Village. Ever since this first exciting but small event, the Village Halloween Parade has been one of the most anticipated events of every New York year.

Each year, the parade has a theme, although not everyone follows it. It’s generally considered to be a relaxed, informal event, and guests in costume can actually participate in the parade at the last minute.

Since The Village is and has always been home to some of New York’s quirkiest artists, many people come to the parade just to see the fabulous costumes. There are prizes each year for the amateur costume makers with the best designs and most interesting styles.

The parade isn’t all amateurs and individuals, though. It also features some fabulous floats as well as live music from tons of different bands. Each year there are about fifty thousand costumed participants in the parade as well as performers of all sorts, from circus performers to street performers.

One of the interesting features of the parade is the huge puppets it features each year. Master puppeteers control large puppets of all types. The costumes are bizarre and interesting, and this huge Halloween event will absolutely knock your socks off. Even though many of the spectators are New Yorkers, this is a great time to visit The Village, too.