There’s still a little time left to finish your costumes and stock up on candy for neighborhood trick or treaters.
Except in Anoka, Minnesota, the town where it’s kind of always Halloween.
This community north of the Twin Cities bills itself as the Halloween Capital of the World, and the first town to hold a Halloween parade for a very particular, very practical, purpose.
The locals were tired of the tricks that came each October 31st.
They didn’t want any more outhouses tipped over, or windows soaped up, or worst of all, cows wandering through downtown.
Anoka held its first Halloween parade in 1920. That means next year is the centennial, though they had to cancel a couple parades during World War II.
Thousands of people get in on the festivities each Halloween, and beyond, because Anoka has Halloween-themed shops and decorations you can visit year round.
I am now checking to see if there are other towns that celebrate various holidays every day of the year. Because if there’s a town that takes National Doughnut Day beyond June 5th, I want in.
Meanwhile, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania is encouraging you to get in on a Halloween-themed trip: the Trail of the Living Dead!
The state tourism authority has built a map where you can visit all the Pennsylvania sites that have been featured in horror movies.
It starts in the cemetery in Evans City, which is where George Romero shot the landmark zombie movie “Night of the Living Dead.”
Cause everyone wants to stand there where that scary guy started saying “They’re coming to get you Barbara,” right?
‘Halloween Capitol Of The World’ Anoka Gears Up For Halloween Season (CBS Minnesota)
Pennsylvania’s Trail of the Living Dead (Visit PA)
The best way to keep zombies away is to back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon
Anoka mural photo by Brett Whaley via Flickr/Creative Commons
