Greenwich Village Halloween Parade
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The Village Halloween Parade is an annual holiday parade on the night of every Halloween, in the
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
neighborhood of New York City. The parade, initiated in 1974 by Greenwich Village puppeteer and mask maker Ralph Lee, is the world's largest Halloween parade and the only major nighttime parade in the United States. The parade reports itself to have 50,000 "costumed participants" and 2 million spectators. The parade has its roots in New York's queer community. The Village Halloween Parade has been called "New York's Carnival." The parade is largely a spontaneous event as individual marchers can just show up in costume at the starting point without registering or paying anything. The parade's signature features include its large puppets, which are
animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
by hundreds of volunteers. The official parade theme each year is applied to the puppets. In addition to the puppets, more than 50
marching bands A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, ofte ...
participate each year. In addition, there are some commercial Halloween
parade floats A float is a decorated platform, either built on a vehicle like a truck or towed behind one, which is a component of many festive parades, such as those of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, the Carnival in São Paulo, the Carnival of Viareggio, the M ...
. The official route, on Sixth Avenue from
Spring Street Spring Street may refer to: * Spring Street (Los Angeles), USA * Spring Street (Manhattan), New York City, USA * Spring Street, Melbourne, Australia * Spring Street, Singapore * Spring St (website), a US based lifestyle website Subway and trolle ...
to 16th Street in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, is 1.4 miles long (the distance from the gathering spot on Sixth Avenue from Canal Street to Spring Street adds another 0.2 miles). The parade usually starts at 7 PM and lasts for about two to three hours.


Historical timeline

In 1974, an informal parade of
puppets A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods or strings to mov ...
for children was organized by Ralph Lee of the Mettawee River Theatre Company around his residence of artists in the
Westbeth Artists Community Westbeth Artists Housing is a nonprofit housing and commercial complex dedicated to providing affordable living and working space for artists and arts organizations in New York City. The complex comprises the full city block bounded by West, Be ...
. The next year, the parade went from Jane Street at the Hudson River to
Washington Square Park Washington Square Park is a public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. ...
. About 200 adults and children participated. The 1975 parade was produced by the
Theatre for the New City Theater for the New City, founded in 1971 and known familiarly as "TNC", is one of New York City's leading off-off-Broadway theaters, known for radical political plays and community commitment. Productions at TNC have won 43 Obie Awards and the ...
(which at the time was in Westbeth). Lee and the Theatre won Obie Award for the production. The 1975 parade grew to 1,500 participants. The new management introduced more adult elements into the event including a Halloween ball after the parade. Organization of the parade was formally handled by a non-profit organization starting in 1976. In 1977, the route was changed to 10th Street between Greenwich Avenue to Fifth Avenue and still ending in Washington Square. A devil sat at the top of the Washington Square arch where it released balloons and slid down a wire into the fountain. The year also saw the first appearance of giant spider on the
Jefferson Market Library The Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library, once known as the Jefferson Market Courthouse, is a National Historic Landmark located at 425 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), on the southwest corner of West 10th Street, in Gree ...
. The parade continued to start at Westbeth until 1983. Two years later, with crowds expanding to 250,000, the route was moved from side streets to Sixth Avenue from Spring Street to 22nd Street (although in practice the gathering point was further south at Canal Street and the northern point would be shortened to 16th Street. The change in route ended the connection to Washington Square Park.
Jeanne Fleming Jeanne Fleming is an American Celebration Artist from New York City, who organized the Harbor Festival Fair in 1986, the Official Land Celebration for the Centennial of the Statue of Liberty and who is currently director of New York's Village Ha ...
took over managing the event. The change with its barricades also reduced the possibilities of people joining the parade at any point as had been the case. In 1990,
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...
and
Manhattan Community Board 2 The Manhattan Community Board 2 is a New York City community board encompassing the neighborhoods of Greenwich Village, West Village, South Village, NoHo, SoHo, Little Italy, NoLIta, and a portion of Chinatown in the borough of Manhattan. It i ...
begin hosting an unrelated Children's Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village in the afternoons in Washington Square.
Sophia Michahelles Sophia Michahelles (born c. 1975) is one of the two chief artists and puppeteers of Processional Arts Workshop, makers of pageant puppets and other processional art in upstate New York. She works closely with co-director Alex Kahn. The couple's ...
and
Alex Kahn Alex Kahn is an American visual/performance artist and co-founder of the arts ensemble Processional Arts Workshop. He is most widely known for his creation of the large-scale puppet performance works that lead New York's Village Halloween Parade ...
become the official designers of the parade's puppets in 1998, and the following year,
Basil Twist Basil Twist is a New York City-based puppeteer who is known for his underwater puppet show, "''Symphonie Fantastique''". He was named a MacArthur Fellowship recipient on September 29, 2015. Life and work Originally from San Francisco, Basil Twi ...
designed the spider that currently appears on the Jefferson Market Library. Less than seven weeks after the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
in 2001, the parade was broadcast worldwide and was an indication that New York was bouncing back. The parade was led by a giant puppet of a Phoenix rising out of the ashes. Noticeably missing from the parade was
Bread and Puppet Theater The Bread and Puppet Theater (often known simply as Bread & Puppet) is a Political radicalism, politically radical puppet theater, active since the 1960s, based in Glover, Vermont . The theater was co-founded by Elka and Peter Schumann. Peter is ...
which had been a political staple of the parade but was protesting the new
War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see al ...
. Earlier the Bread and Puppet contingent consisted of five blocks of its giant puppets. Similarly, less than 8 weeks after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, more than 8,000 storm evacuees attended a funeral procession tribute as part of the parade. In 2010, Haitian Carnival Artist Didier Civil created Haitian carnival figures as a tribute to victims of the
2010 Haiti earthquake A catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest department, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's c ...
. The parade was cancelled for the first time in the aftermath of
Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...
in 2012, which had heavily damaged coastal New York City and had left Greenwich Village without electricity during the parade time. The next year, a Kickstarter campaign to cover costs of the 2012 closing saved the parade from permanently closing. The campaign raised $56,000, surpassing its goal of $50,000. Less than four hours after eight people were killed six blocks west of the parade route in the
2017 New York City truck attack On October 31, 2017, Sayfullo Habibullaevich Saipov drove a rented pickup truck into cyclists and runners for about of the Hudson River Park's bike path alongside West Street from Houston Street south to Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan, ...
, the parade proceeded as scheduled. Both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov.
Andrew Cuomo Andrew Mark Cuomo ( ; ; born December 6, 1957) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position that his father, Mario Cu ...
marched in the parade. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, the parade was canceled for the first time in eight years. The parade's organizers cited concerns that
social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dis ...
would be impossible with the high crowds that the parade typically saw.


Theme

In 2001, the parade presented a work of puppetry that would become celebrated for its artistry, and remembered in the city's history. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, events citywide and nationwide were being either scrapped or postponed. Organizers believed the parade would give the city a much-needed emotional release, reform the community, and help it to begin the healing process. They felt that this was the most positive way they, as artists, could serve the city at such a desperate time. "This is the meaning of the Dancing Skeletons that always lead the march: they know better than anyone what they have lost, and so they dance this one night of the year to celebrate life," Fleming told
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
in an interview. By September 15, Fleming had scrapped the old theme and chosen a new one. Although no one was certain the parade would take place, designer
Sophia Michahelles Sophia Michahelles (born c. 1975) is one of the two chief artists and puppeteers of Processional Arts Workshop, makers of pageant puppets and other processional art in upstate New York. She works closely with co-director Alex Kahn. The couple's ...
conceived of a new theme, Phoenix Rising, to galvanize the spirit of New York in the wake of the tragedy. A giant puppet of a
phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
, the mythical bird that rises up out of its own ashes, was created by Michahelles in the workshop of Official Parade Puppeteers
Superior Concept Monsters Processional Arts Workshop (PAW) is an ensemble of performing artists and theatrical technicians founded in 1998, devoted to pageant puppetry and processional art. They are also known by the name Superior Concept Monsters (SCM). They are best known ...
. The animated creation was mechanically configured to spread its wings and rise out of fiery ashes, represented by flickering lanterns lifted on poles, encircling the parading figure. On October 25 the parade received final authorization to go ahead. In light of the widely established community relationships which Fleming had cultivated, and the parade's long tradition, Mayor Rudy Giuliani insisted it go on.


Cultural impact

The parade has been studied by leading cultural anthropologists. According to ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', "the Halloween Parade is the best entertainment the people of this City ever give the people of this City." "Absolutely anything goes," says ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
''. "Be prepared to drop your jaw." The parade is also themed in the video game '' Tycoon City: New York'', published in 2006.Tycoon City: New York
at gamefaqs.gamespot.com


Gallery

File:Pinkladywendywilliams.jpg, Parade participant (2004) File:Exoticblackredwendywilliams.jpg, Exotic masquerader in beads, feathers, headdress, and face paint (2004) File:Mask-blackhat.jpg, A masquerader poses in front of a wrought iron fence in historic
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
File:Jeannefleming.jpg, Celebration artist
Jeanne Fleming Jeanne Fleming is an American Celebration Artist from New York City, who organized the Harbor Festival Fair in 1986, the Official Land Celebration for the Centennial of the Statue of Liberty and who is currently director of New York's Village Ha ...
, the parade's artistic and producing director File:Nycbuginvasion.jpg, Twenty-foot illuminated caterpillars — animated pageant sized puppets designed by
Alex Kahn Alex Kahn is an American visual/performance artist and co-founder of the arts ensemble Processional Arts Workshop. He is most widely known for his creation of the large-scale puppet performance works that lead New York's Village Halloween Parade ...
of
Superior Concept Monsters Processional Arts Workshop (PAW) is an ensemble of performing artists and theatrical technicians founded in 1998, devoted to pageant puppetry and processional art. They are also known by the name Superior Concept Monsters (SCM). They are best known ...
— transform Manhattan's Greenwich Village in 1998 (the former Twin Towers are prominently seen in the background) File:Phoenixcrop.jpg, An incandescent baby
phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
conceived and designed by
Sophia Michahelles Sophia Michahelles (born c. 1975) is one of the two chief artists and puppeteers of Processional Arts Workshop, makers of pageant puppets and other processional art in upstate New York. She works closely with co-director Alex Kahn. The couple's ...
of
Superior Concept Monsters Processional Arts Workshop (PAW) is an ensemble of performing artists and theatrical technicians founded in 1998, devoted to pageant puppetry and processional art. They are also known by the name Superior Concept Monsters (SCM). They are best known ...
rises from fiery ashes to new life in 2001, after the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...


References


Other sources


Videos

* Karl Gober :* :* 2000 Halloween Parade
"Life Cycle of a Parade"
Note: Each chapter is about one minute long
Note: Twin Towers in background on their last Halloween
::* ::* ::* ::* ::* ::* ::* ::* ::* :* :*
Superior Concept Monsters
— Theme Performances :* :* :* :* :* * Street photo montage, Kenneth Akama


Photographs

* * * NYCfoto &mdash
201420132011201020092008
*


External links

*
Superior Concept Monsters
"Official" Puppeteers for New York's Village Halloween Parade * * * * * {{Halloween events Halloween Halloween events in the United States Greenwich Village Sixth Avenue 1973 establishments in New York City Recurring events established in 1973