The ‘Village Venture’ is a huge Fall festival held in Claremont every year on the Saturday before Halloween And every year the Village Venture begins with a parade of dozens and dozens of children (and parents) in their Halloween costumes.
The ‘Village Venture’ is also one of the few remaining street festivals where almost all the vendors sell hand-crafted goods. So many street festivals have become marketplaces for junk imported from China. Yuk!
I wonder how many of the parents in this annual Halloween parade know that Halloween is a shortened version of All Hallows Evening–the night before All Saints Day. All Saints Day has become an enormous event here in Southern California where it is known as the Day of the Dead. It’s that Mexican influence.
If you haven’t been to Claremont it is a charming old town filled with Colleges: Scripps, Pomona, Claremont McKenna and Harvey Mudd colleges dominate the area.
And, of course, there is a big Halloween parade in West Hollywood, a center of the gay community in L.A. simply because many in that community seem to like to dress up in funny clothes every so often. Anyway, here are some photos from the Claremont Village Venture.
