All Hallow's Eve. It's got its origins in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts.
Why? Well, perhaps because Halloween sits right on the border between fall and winter, right in between life and death if you will.
That straddling the border of life and death is Halloween's whole point. It's why we dress up spookily and tour graveyards and haunted houses.
We're aware that everyone who lives in New York City is super brave. That fact doesn't prevent the owners NYC's haunted houses from trying to scare the pants off everyone in the city around this time of year.
Find out the 8 best ways to celebrate Halloween in NYC below. (Well, besides the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, which is a given, obviously.)
1. Halloween Harvest Festival (32-01 Vernon Boulevard - Queens)
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Grab your pals and your dopest costume and get yourselves to Socrates Sculpture Park for this year's Halloween Harvest Festival on Saturday October 24th.
Don't have a costume yet? Well, thanks for the Free Style Arts Association, you don't have to worry about that. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. there will be a costume and art-making workshop let by Socrates Artists and Free Style Arts Association.
The festival will also include face painting, a harvest festival dance, harvest food from local restaurants, live music, and a dog costume contest.
The best part? How about the fact that it's totally free. It's all going down from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Socrates Sculpture Park.
2. Merchant's House Museum (29 East 4th Street)
The Merchant's House Museum, considered one of the finest surviving architecture from the 19th Century, holds several Halloween-themed events. This makes sense, considering the fact that eight family members died in this house, and their funerals were held in the front parlor.
The first and arguably most coveted are their "Candlelight Ghost Tours of 'Manhattan's Most Haunted House," held on weekend nights from October 23rd through October 30th. Venturing into the dark and ghostly shadows of this house by candlelight is only for the very courageous.
These tours include chilling tales of restless phantoms, voices calling into the night, and otherworldly experiences, all by flickering candlelight. They're all 50-minutes and begin every half hour from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. for $25.
Check out their "Spirited" October Events for more information.
3. Wall Street Walks Ghost Tour (55 Wall Street)
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This ghost tour will certainly put you in a spooky mood, and ready to get down and dirty for Halloween.
On the Wall Street Walks Ghost Tour you'll explore cemeteries, haunted sites, and the dark back alleys of the oldest neighborhood in NYC.
Try and spot the famous horseman of Kipp's Bay, drop into the filming sites of Ghostbusters 2, explore the cemetery at Trinity Church and learn the spooky legends of George Washington, Aaron Burr, and Alexander Hamilton.
This tour costs $25 for adults and $15 for students. Get your tickets here.
4. Boo at the Zoo (2300 Southern Boulevard - Bronx)
On weekends in October the Bronx Zoo holds Boo at the Zoo, an NYC favorite when it comes to zoo traditions.
Come by for music, magic, and fun facts about the animals surrounded by mystery and mischief. They've got a Jack O'Lantern Illumination, which consists of wandering through a maze of 1,000 hand-carved and beautifully lit Jack O'Lanterns in World of Darkness.
Their pumpkins will be carved into the shapes of creepy and crawly bugs, bats, hawks, vipers, eels, and more. They'll also have costume parades on afternoons from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. and then again from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.
They've also got a hay maze, located at their butterfly pad and open on weekends from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. See if you can find your way out.
,5. Halloween Parade and Pumpkin Flotilla (110th Street and 5th Avenue)
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Come out to Central Park Conservancy's annual Halloween Parade, why don't you?
Here's what's going down.
They've got a pumpkin drop off, pumpkin carving demonstrations, live music, spooky stories, the parade, and of course the pumpkin flotilla launch. Gather round and watch as a whole bunch of pumpkins set sail across the Harlem Meer at twilight.
If you want your pumpkin to be a part of the flotilla, make sure you drop it off as close to 3:30 p.m. at the designated drop off locations as possible.
It's going down at the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center in Central Park, located near 110th Street and 5th Avenue.
6. Blood Manor (163 Varick Street)
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Do you love being spooked? Great, same. That's the whole point of Halloween, right?
Well Blood Manor is a terrifying haunted house that'll scare your socks off. It's got 5,000 square feet of themed rooms, corridors, and a labyrinth of passageways designed to maximize fears. You travel through this horrifying haunted house on foot, and is certainly not appropriate for young children.
It's that scary, and that awesome. Don't worry, you can leave if you get too scared. Plus, you get free admission if it's your birthday, which we've got to say is pretty dope.
It's open from October 2nd through November 7th, visit their days and hours to see if they're open during a time you'd like to get spooked. Get your tickets here.
7. Nightmare Horror Show (107 Suffolk Street)
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Dubbed New York's first and only terrifying theater festival, this Horror Show will be horrifying the hats off NYC from October 7th through October 31st at The Clemente.
During these four weeks, eight new mini-horror productions will be performed. These horror works will thrill even the bravest theater goer. The evening features two or three programs per night created by the Psycho Clan, the artistic team behind Nightmare Horror Show.
This actual, honest-to-goodness scary theater is the perfect Halloween attraction for theater lovers and Halloween lovers alike.
Tickets are $25, and you can get them here.
8. Queens County Farm Museum (73-50 Little Neck Parkway - Queens)
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Did you know there was a corn maze in Queens?
Well, if you didn't, we're telling you now. There's a corn maze in Queens, and it's at the Queens County Farm Museum. It dates back to 1697, and occupies NYC's largest remaining tract of undisturbed farmland.
Their Amazing Maize Maze is now open, and will remain open until October 25th from 11 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. They've also got pumpkin patch picking on weekends from October 3rd through October 25th, and a coveted Halloween Haunted House on October 24th and 25th from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The Queens County Farm Museum's haunted house only costs $4 per person, which has got to be the best news we've heard in a while.
Check out 6 Top Spots to Pick Pumpkins in and Around NYC.
[via Cosmo Hotel]