Halloween kicks off early in New Brunswick

Spooky haunts: Petrifying places With Halloween just days way, there are plenty of petrifying places to visit ahead of time.

Halloween came early this year in New Brunswick at the Irishtown Community Centre’s haunted house.

The spooky festivities are already underway, with 24 hours just not being enough time to embrace the haunted holiday.

“[Saturday] we have our Halloween breakfast in the morning, we have Halloween games for the kids, then we have our kids movies in the afternoon and our haunted house and haunted trail,” said Marc Gagnon, the community centre’s program coordinator.

That list isn’t all. There is also an adult movie night Friday, and candy bingo for kids planned for Sunday.

It’s promising to bring fun for all ages.

Gagnon says not only is it a chance to show off the supernatural, but it’s an opportunity to bring everyone together.

“We just want to get the community involved and get a lot of things happening. We want a lot of the programs we have here at the centre to get involved too. So we had our circus class, our karate classes, drawing, yoga classes… everybody here just pitched in and helped us out,” he said.

However, if haunted houses aren’t your thing, there are many options when it comes to celebrating early, including a Moncton display that has been 12 years in the making.

“It takes like four or five, 7 to 8 hour days and then all throughout Halloween, every other day, we usually add a new piece right up until Halloween,” said Christine Murray, who has almost every inch of her lawn covered with decorations on Falcon Drive.

“I find with Halloween of all occasions you can be a little bit silly, you can be funny, parents seem to enjoy it just as much as kids do,” she said. “It keeps us young at heart and as long as we still get positive feedback from the community, that’s the most important thing.”

If skeletons are more your style, a group of bones in Riverview, N.B., gets up to something different every single day.

“We set it up every morning,” said Amanda Crandall, whose display sits on Waterfall Drive. “We try to set it up before noon so that the kids can see it and the kids after school get to see it. It usually takes us about an hour to set it up.”

Crandall says their “Keeping up with the Bones” display started two years ago they’ve never repeated a scene.

“We’ve done a bone sale, we’ve done the Moncton Wildcats, we’ve done a dog bath,” she said, listing just a few of the many ideas that have been brought to life.

“We do it for the enjoyment of the community,” she said. “The smile and laughter we see everyday. That’s why we do it.”

So whether you’re looking for some early treats, the perfect Halloween selfie, or some scary fun, it’s clear that there’s no need to wait until Monday to embrace this haunted holiday.