America

20 American cities where Halloween is a religion

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Mummies, ghosts and ghouls roam the streets all decked out with jack-o’-lanterns, skeleton bones and treasure chests. Cobwebs and bat wings drape over blood-stained entrances to homes. If there’s a country in the world where Halloween comes close to a religion, it’s the USA. As autumn nights turn crisp, it’s time for witch hats, vampire fangs and candy corn. Whether you prefer costume competitions or haunted house tours, corn mazes, themed parties or plain old trick-or-treating, these cities across America take spooking seriously, so make sure to check under your bed before turning off the lights.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Anoka, Minnesota

Anoka boasts the title of the Halloween capital of the world, where festivities such as pumpkin bake-offs and the annual cemetery marathon, Gray Ghost 5K Run, last all through October. History claims this U.S. city was the first to stop trick-or-treaters’ pranks like tipping outhouses and letting cows loose on the streets by throwing America’s first organized Halloween parade.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Austin, Texas

Texans pull out their wax candles and skeleton make-up for the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival, while families hop on the Austin Zoo’s nocturnal train ride, featuring the peacock barn morphed into a haunted mansion. Coined “The Party to Die For,” ACL’s Zombie Ball features live gigs and aerial acrobatics, topping off the night by crowning the Zombie King and Queen.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Salem, Massachusetts

It’s no surprise that the location of the 1690s Salem Witch Trials serves as one of the country’s most popular places to honor Halloween all through October. This Massachusetts town’s eerie history offers nearly 500,000 visitors festivities galore: from 10 guided walking tours and six haunted houses to trial re-enactments and magic shows.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

New Orleans, Louisiana

Come October, the ornate tombs and spooky voodoo history of jazzy New Orleans confirm the town’s status as the most haunted city in America. While fortunetellers roam the streets, masked visitors go bar-hopping around the Myrtles Plantation, a rumored home to over a dozen ghosts. The city also hosts the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience Festival.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Romeo, Michigan

Just a 45-minute drive from Detroit, adults and children storm the streets of the small town of Romeo, Michigan, for Terror on Tillson Street. The block’s yards and facades line up like an outdoor haunted house museum featuring creepy ghost manors, spooky pirate boats and glow-in-the-dark graves.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Chicago, Illinois

Halloween lovers stock up on Tootsie Pops and head to horror movie screenings between the mummified streets, haunted cornfields and orange-dyed fountains of Chicago. Visit Chinatown to explore the city’s creepy historic buildings. October festivities peak with the best Theme, Scariest, Group and Drag costumes of Northalsted Halloween Parade.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

In late October, the crumbling cell ruins of Eastern State Penitentiary make for perfect props of Philadelphia’s historical prison turned massive haunted house. Just one look at the city’s legendary hospital complex, PennHurst Asylum, sends chills down your spine. Looking for more kid-friendly festivities? Straw mazes and scarecrow competitions are family favorites.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Savannah, Georgia

Savannah’s ghost hunters take paranormal activity seriously. Sporting thermal cameras and electromagnetic detectors, groups join for a midnight venture through the city’s plagued Sorrel Weed House. America’s South gets gothic on a night walk through petrifying stone tomb statues and giant weeping willows at the Bonaventure Cemetery.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Portland, Oregon

Misty Portland is the Pacific Northwest’s go-to for Halloween. Fog-filled streets lead to old-school horror movie screenings such as Creature from the Black Lagoon and Dracula. For those brave enough to visit the historic Shanghai Tunnels, a horrifying underground kidnapping network, begin your tour with a glass of blackberry cider at McMenamins White Eagle Saloon.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Timeless tales of Washington Irving’s headless horseman spread through New York state’s small town of Sleepy Hollow. Festivities all through October include 7,000 carved pumpkins lining the streets. For a family-friendly tour, head to Jay Ghoul’s House of Curiosities to meet Maleficent, Dracula and the Wicked Witch of the West.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Los Angeles, California

Each year, about half a million people fill the streets around Los Angeles’s Santa Monica Boulevard for the world’s largest Halloween party: West Hollywood Carnaval. While six stages, food trucks and lively bars amuse costumed tourists with live gigs and festive drinks, the highlight of the night comes last, when an A-list celebrity (such as Rihanna) is declared Queen.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Las Vegas, Nevada

On October 31, costumed masses stroll the Las Vegas Strip lined with nightclubs, restaurants and bars decorated as horror scenes. For your worst nightmare, seek no further than Frightdome theme park, where freaky jesters and bloodthirsty wolverines tread the darkness spreading infectious diseases. Get your freak on at the city’s legendary ball whose name commands the theme: Fetish and Fantasy Halloween.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Estes Park, Colorado

This Halloween, experience an eerie scene from Stephen King’s novel The Shining. Book a night at The Stanley Hotel (which served as the inspiration for King’s Overlook Hotel) to roam its dark hallways for a supernatural encounter. Before dark at Estes Park, Colorado, families dress up to knock on the shops along Elkhorn Avenue for the town’s massive trick-or-treating.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Bar Harbor, Massachusetts

If you’re ready to witness a spooky town’s history this October, head out to find the spirits of missionaries that haunt Bar Harbor’s Jesuit Springs. Put on your witch hats and get your pets dressed for mischief at Acadia Veterinary Hospital’s Halloween party, where prizes go to the best-costumed cats and dogs.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Stowe, Vermont

Each fall, the streets of this New England town brighten up with candle lights for haunted tales on Stowe Lantern Tours. Legend has it that the ghost of Boots Berry, born at the Green Mountain Inn, tap-dances on the rooftop from which he fell to his death. Maple Street blocks traffic for trick-or-treaters to ring doorbells. For even more family-friendly fun, head north to the corn maze at Percy Farm off Route 108.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Oakland, Maryland

When in Oakland during Halloween, visitors hop onto a flatbed trailer for walking zombies and tormented spirits at the Haunted Hayride at Broadford Park. Those in town before the last week of the month can join 50,000 people at Autumn Glory Festival where the Banjo, Fiddle & Mandolin Championships and over 70 street sales, exhibits and shows take place.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Franklin, Tennessee

The little ones can enjoy bouncy castles and pumpkin painting while parents join the chili cook-off at Franklin’s annual Pumpkinfest. For those seeking chills down their spines, not to be missed is the Grave Matters walking tour that revives history with actors dressed up as citizens of Tennessee’s past.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

St. Augustine, Florida

At the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, guests watch reptile and mammal eyes glow green as part of the main Halloween attraction, Creatures of the Night. No fooling around by the 1874 Lighthouse Tower, where Dark of the Moon tours unlock the city’s mysteries of paranormal activity.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

Indianapolis, Indiana

For a classy Halloween, Indianapolis offers spooky organs at the Indiana Landmarks Center to accompany a screening of the 1922 silent movie classic, Nosferatu. Local bars and restaurants such as The Vogue, Casler’s Kitchen & Bar and Pure Eatery dish out cash prizes for the best dressed.

food, 20 american cities where halloween is a religion

New York City, New York

Like with any major celebration, Halloween in New York City means it’s time to bring out the giant puppets. At the traditional Village Parade, the world’s quirkiest melting pot dresses—or undresses—into anything from slimy eyeballs and celebrity caricatures to naked models in body paint. At the Tompkins Square Dog Parade, Chihuahuas dressed as Superman or pit bulls in tutus are just a few adorable entries competing for the grand prize.

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