If your favorite Halloween outing is going to a cemetery you might find Colma attractive.
The city’s population of 1792 (2010) has seventeen cemeteries – , including one for pets. Four are listed in the cemetery travel guide! Hence the ratio of alive to dead is 1:1000 and the cities motto:”It’s Great to be Alive in Colma”. Colma was build as a necropolis, after San Francisco in the 1900 outlawed interments and then in 1912 evicted all cemeteries.
I started my exploration of Colma at the local Historical Association (free, but donations are encouraged). They embrace the dead neighbors with interesting knowledge about customs about grief. For example did you know that hair of deceased was made into jewelry? For those of you interested in genealogy the museum also has a reading room.
I can recommend the walkable Italian Cementy next to the museum. A lot of interesting crypts and someone at the museum told me that people like to picnic there on the weekends.
Some famous underground residents of Colma are:
Joe DiMaggio
Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery
Wyatt Earp
Hills of Eternity Jewish Cemetery
William Randolph Hearst
Cypress Lawn Cemetery
Levi Strauss
Home of Peace Jewish Cemetery
None of these resting places has a special Halloween offering, but two of them do occasionally offer tours:
Cypress Lawn (http://www.cypresslawnheritagefoundation.org/events/activities-presentations/) and Holy Cross
(http://www.holycrosscemeteries.com/locations/colma.htm).
For a Halloween event in the area you can go to the Annual Halloween Spook Parade and Costume Contest, Tuesday, October 31st from 3 pm – 5:30 pm at the Serramonte Center in Daly City.
What is your favorite passtime on Halloween?
Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colma,_California
https://cemeterytravel.com/2013/01/06/colma-before-the-graveyards/