Making Traditions seem “Traditional” in a Pandemic

It’s Halloween again, but this year, halloween costume parties, West 69th Street scares, halloween parades and treat-or-treating seems like a relic of the past. In my case the silver living, if you can call it that, is the kids have no clue. We carved pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, made Halloween “spooky” signs, randomly hung throughout our home, and piled up on candy. And it would not be complete without costumes.

We will do a socially distanced run though our building picking up candy left outside doors in little bags for the neighborhood kids (no tick or treating here) and do a scavenger hunt in Central Park. Lots of air, socially distanced.

And then I get to sit back at home and watch the kids bounce of the walls after their sugar high kicks in. And I contemplate a 2nd bottle of wine. To them, another successful halloween. To us, some modicum of joy in making yearly traditions seem somewhat normal during a pandemic.

Meanwhile, I’m amazed at how many people have started to bring the city back to life. While our President stumps on his campaign trail telling everyone that New York City is a ghost town and emptied out, I wanted to show how that was untrue and inject a dose of reality.

From the spring to now, what a difference. I put together this little film comparing the eerily empty Times Square, desolate and quite and juxtaposed it to now. The whole Times Square was hopping! Even more remarkable since there are no Broadway shows, gigs or cinemas open. People appear to see it as some central point. Not a huge amount of social distancing but at least most people were wearing masks. NYC in all its wondrous kookiness.

You can watch the video below.