When you join Jeanne Fleming for a walk through Greenwich Village, you know there’s only one place you’re going to end up.

“Where we are right now, this is called the Psychic Heart of Greenwich Village,” Fleming said.

What You Need To Know

  • The Village Halloween Parade started in 1973 when puppeteer Ralph Lee strolled through the neighborhood with his family, friends and a group of puppets

  • Jeanne Fleming started working on the parade 45 years ago. Two years later, she became the parade's artistic director

  • The “Thriller” dance has been performed in the parade since 2004

The parade has been a seriously spooky West Village tradition for 50 years.

“I’ve been in the parade for 45 years and I’ve been running it for 43 years,” Fleming said. “I have no idea what made me think that I could actually do something like this, but somehow or another, it just felt really natural to me.”

In 1973, puppeteer Ralph Lee gathered a group of family and friends, marched to Washington Square Park with puppets, and there the Halloween parade was born.

Now, it’s the biggest Halloween bash in the country.  

According to Fleming, “the reason it’s grown is because it allows ordinary people, not artists, but ordinary people to be able to reach into their imaginations and make something, create something, and then go out and share it with their community.”

She said the goal is to deliver a ghoulishly good time for everyone, whether they want to put on a costume and march, check it out from the sidelines, or watch it on NY1.

For half a century, the parade has proven to be as resilient as the city itself.

Seven weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the parade was there to lift the spirits of New Yorkers.

In 2017, eight people were killed and 11 injured when they were run down on the Hudson River Bike Path by a terrorist. But the parade still stepped off just hours later.

Even the COVID-19 lockdown couldn’t completely scare the Halloween parade away.  

They did the whole thing, but in miniature form on the web.

In fact, the parade paused just once in 2012 when Superstorm Sandy knocked out power to downtown Manhattan.

The parade has built its own traditions through the years — like Basil Twist’s giant spider, spinning its imaginary web around the Jefferson Market Library.

“So the spider waits, and the minute it sees the parade, it jumps out of the tower and comes down and it starts going up and down the tower,” Fleming said.

And, of course, the “Thriller" dance has become one of the most anticipated moments in the march since its debut in 2004.

This year’s theme is “Upside Down/Inside Out.” According to Fleming, it reflects the state of the world.

The parade will do what it does best, scare up a sense of community.

“This is the night when we invite back traditionally everyone who’s died in the year to come and walk for one last night in spirit through the streets of the city. And it’s just fascinating to me because it’s really a celebration of those who’ve died. And yet what it really celebrates is life,” Fleming said.