A Halloween parade aimed at saving rain forests stepped off in a constant drizzle and other revelers found the cost of dressing up scary, while some cemeteries became a place for the living on All Saints Day today.
In southern Louisiana, families spend weeks preparing for the holiday, cleaning and repairing tombs, and decorating them with flowers. Today, they were to return."I been doing this ever since I can remember," said 91-year-old Carrie Langemark as she arranged flowers on the family tomb at a New Orleans cemetery. "My grandfather bought the tomb. That's him there. The one that says `1901.' That's when he was buried.
"There's seven of us in here now. I guess I'm next."
In New York, the 16th Annual Village Halloween Parade sloshed its way through lower Manhattan Tuesday evening with the "Save the Rain Forest" theme.
To enact the destruction of the world's rain forests, a dozen grim reapers with scythes repeatedly mowed down the tropical marchers dressed as frogs, monkeys and birds, who crumpled on the wet street.
More traditional themes held sway, too. Cross-dressers were in abundance - a muscular Maggie Thatcher stumbled along with a dove tangled in her locks, while "Mz. New Joizzy" groused about the rain mussing his hairdo.
In Southern California, Batman suits sold for up to $300, and the rubber mask for up to $70. The rediscovery of the joys of Halloween parties by many adults spawned a costume-buying boom, according to retailers who rent and sell outfits.
"We're finding that people want to be special," said Paul Abramowitz, president of Hollywood's Western Costume Co., which bills itself as the world's largest costume house. "They want to be unique. And they'll pay virtually anything to do that."
Western rents Halloween outfits for anywhere from $75 to $500 a day, while its average customer spends about $100 a day.
In Hollywood, where it is often difficult to tell who's in costume 365 days a year, some 25,000 revelers jammed Hollywood Boulevard.
And residents of the Malibu celebrity enclave, dubbed Mali-Boo for Halloween, dined on the holiday specials at Zooma Sushi and Something Fishy - low-tide delicacies many deem scary year-round.