Halloween Parade in Manhattan, New York

My husband and I attended the 35 annual Halloween Parade in New York City on October 31, 2008. When we saw "The Cat In The Hat" on the subway on his way to march in the parade, we knew we were going to have a lot of fun! (all phot0s enlarge when clicked on)

We made sure to get into Manhattan early in the evening so we would have a good spot to watch the parade -- an estimated two million people line the route which is on 6 Avenue from Spring Street to 21 Street to view it!

While we waited in a little park near Prince Street, we saw many people in costumes going to the gathering point. An unbelievable 60,000 people in costume march in the parade! Anyone can join in as long as you wear a costume.

The parade began at exactly 7 PM and many floats and marching bands, stilt walkers, jugglers, break dancers and other street performers marched by for two and a half hours!

I tried to highlight some of what we saw pass by, and as many photos as I could of people who stopped so that I could take their picture.

This puppet was hard to photograph, but it had a glowing face inside ...very eerie! There were many diaphanous puppets and ephemeral phantom projections as the theme of the parade this year was "Ghost!"

A steady stream of people went by in costumes -- so many unusual, imaginative, funny, frightening and fantastic costumes!

The Lion King!

I love these ladies in poodle skirts!

Aghhhh....the joker! He wanted to tell me a riddle!

Hmmmmm...a witch ?

A monster from the deep?

Oh No! Watch out Mr. Bill!

There were lots of Obamas, McCains and Palin costumes ..... but only this Sarah stopped long enough for me to get a good photo.

Many of these beautiful ladies were walking on stilts.

This "nightmare" bride and groom were a big hit with the photographers.

Darth and the Jedi Master dueling for us. Save us Obi Wan Kenobi --you're our only hope!

A pirate family with their children in the boat.

A witch band!

A group of Richard Simmons working out to music.

Pac Man!

I loved the pigeon sitting on this "policeman's" hat!

This duo did a little song and dance for us!

This year is the 25 anniversary of the Michael Jackson song "Thriller" and there was a very large group marching as the dancing ghouls from the video.

You can watch a YOUTUBE of them doing the Thriller dance!

Champagne person! Cheers!

Mr. & Mrs Shrek

These costumes were one of my favorites -- soft ice cream cups!

There were so many wonderful costumes that it was hard to see each and every one as they marched by, but here is a YOUTUBE of some more people in costumes from this year's parade, and the official 2008 photographer's gallery is HERE, just click on each album to see their photos.

Next year's theme will be "Pumpkins" so you have a whole year to prepare your costume!

Hope to see you march in parade in 2009!