B'more known for Halloween traditions

Halloween comes full-force to Baltimore.

Forget about the half-filled bowls of Tootsie-Rolls your parents used to leave last-minute by the front door. When it comes to Halloween, Baltimoreans mean business.

For all of you looking for a true Halloween experience — full out zombies and ghosts, pumpkins and candy corn — you could not be living anywhere better. Beyond, of course, the extravaganza that is Fells Point during Halloween weekend, there are tons of other Baltimore traditions to try out.

Baltimore is probably most famous for its Halloween Light & Luminaria Parade run each year by Creative Alliance down in Patterson Park. It is a great family style event, featuring stilt walkers, floats, foo d, music and, as the name suggests, an amazing parade of lanterns as the sun begins to set.

Every year, thousands of people flock by the Pulaski Monument at Patterson Park to take part in the festivities. If you want to be one of them this year, the Light Parade is taking place Saturday, October 29 at 7:00, although events will be running all day. So put your books down, throw on your best costume and head over to Patterson Park, because you have not really seen Baltimore until you have seen it all dressed up for Halloween.

But if you are looking for something a bit closer to home, there is the annual block party in Remington every Halloween weekend. Also running on Saturday, October 29 from 5:00 — 8:00 p.m., Hauntington Avenue, as it is formally known, is a great chance to meet up with your fellow Baltimore neighbors and celebrate in true Halloween spirit.

There promises to be games, a haunted house, music performances by local artists, a spectacle of artwork and decorations and, of course, tons of over-the-top costumes. Stop by and you almost will not even recognize the neighborhood with cobwebs and Jack-o-lanterns on every doorstep and paper ghosts and plastic spiders dangling from every tree.

And if after all that, you still have not gotten your fill of all things spooky, 901 Arts, a non-profit organization in Better Waverly, is having their very own haunted house on Sunday, October 30th from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.. For just a dollar, drop by 901 Montpellier and prepare for some ghastly surprises.

Of course, going to Fell's Point for Halloween is a classic Hopkins tradition. The costumes are crazy, the people are a little crazy too, and the entire night is always a lot of fun.

But if you are looking for a nice (and warmer) alternative to Fells Point this year, head down to the Power Plant for their "Halloween Through the Decades" party. Starting at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 29, each venue will feature a different decade theme-party with music, costume contests and even cash prizes. Paying me to have fun on Halloween? That sounds pretty alright.

No matter what you chose to do this weekend (whether it be re-watching classic scary movies,  feasting on fun-sized Hershey's bars, or dressing up and going out), there are tons of Baltimore events to help you get into the Halloween spirit.

Halloween does only comes once a year.

What better excuse, then, to forget about school for a little while and celebrate in true Baltimore style?