Zombie Festival in New York City
The term “zombie” in popular culture refers to the walking dead, animated at someone else’s baleful whim, possessing no will of their own and only following orders. As a rule, zombies run after people in the crowd in the hope of getting a piece of them. And the origin of such a colorful name refers to the West African tribes and their beliefs in powerful voodoo wizards with the ability to raise the dead. However, these former dead men look, frankly speaking, not at all unimportant. They move with a shuffling, unsteady gait, losing parts of their semi-decaying bodies as they go.
The word “zombie” was first mentioned by the American journalist William Seabrook, who lived in Haiti for a while and met the aborigines who practiced voodoo. This happened in the late 20’s of last century and caused the first surge of interest in the living dead on the other side of the Atlantic.
In today’s world, however, the zombie theme was triggered by the movies Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead by George Romero, as well as by Richard Matson’s book I Am Legend. Despite the fairly widespread popularity of zombie themes around the world, the greatest love of “the dead” is enjoyed in the United States. Therefore, it is not surprising that one of the main metropolitan areas of this country, New York, hosts one of the largest zombie festivals.
The concept of “zombie” in popular culture refers to the walking dead, animated at someone else’s evil whim, possessing no will of its own and only following orders. As a rule, zombies are a crowd chasing people in the hope to get a piece of them eaten.
The Zombiecon Zombie Festival takes place in New York City in October, usually a few days or weeks before Halloween. The parade participants are mostly young people who enjoy disfiguring each other by applying sinister makeup. The effect is to radically transform the crowd, looking so repulsive and naturalistic that even a voodoo shaman would probably run away if he saw a veritable army of the risen dead.
Many participants in the parade think that in this way they are expressing a certain social stance, protesting against the imposed model of consumer society, and so on. Of course, anything can happen, but it is not very clear how cut, bleeding wounds, bluish faces, and other colorful details can serve as an expression of any kind of protest. However, the zombie festival attracts a lot of tourists, which of course reflects well on the city’s coffers, so the authorities are very loyal to the event.
In short, the main purpose of the parade is to have fun and have a good time, and then to remember all the following year the frightened bystanders.