The 37th Annual Annual Village Halloween Parade
Theme 2010
Memento Mori

Twenty years ago the iconic Day of the Dead puppets first appeared in the Village Halloween Parade, our festival of All Souls to ritual traditions worldwide –the Guede in Port-au-Prince, the Skull and Bones Gang of New Orleans, in the calaveras of Oaxaca, the Midnight Robbers of Trinidad, and beyond.

Often it is in the places where tragedy is more ubiquitous and everyday existence can be more of a struggle, that expressions of the Dead are the most exuberant, a reminder that life itself, despite itshardships, is a gift. The Dead – as they return to drink coffee, play checkers, watch TV,but above all, to dance – offer us a mirror to see with fresh eyes the everyday things in our lives, rendered invisible by routine. Every sound, action, and motion we take for granted, they rejoice in - on the one night they can.

So each year, when the skeletons take their place at the head of the Halloween Parade,
they are not grim expressions of the morbid but rather joyful reminders of all that is vital.

As the beloved dancing skeletons enter their third decade in the Village Halloween Parade, we seek to honor them – and in doing so, to honor all those who have walked in their footsteps. Official Parade puppeteers Superior Concept Monsters, Master Puppeteer Basil Twist and Haitian Artist Didier Civil plan to work with the Mexican, Haitian and arts communities to make and remake, create and re-create, re-envision and resurrect the entire Day of the Dead section, calling forth not only the spirits of the Dead, but many of the puppets of past VHP artists that had long been absent from the streets of Greenwich Village. Drawing on traditional forms from Trinidad to Tibet, Haiti to Mexico, new 12'-foot tall skeletal puppets will add new life to the VHP's jubilant underworld – a cortege drawn by galloping night-Mares, an illuminated Ghost Train, and a dozen brand-new dancing Calaveras skeletons and who knows what else to join their brethren at the head of the Parade.

As the perennial community of Halloween volunteers gathers again this year to build and rehearse our memento mori ("Remembrance of Death") we'll look back on  37 years of Halloween in NY with
another Latin adage: "Vita Brevis Ars Longa" : life is short, but art endures.

                       Jeanne Fleming                                       Alex Kahn
                          Artistic and Producing Director                         Master Puppeteer, Superior Concept Monsters