LOWER MANHATTAN — Anti-capitalist zombies, equality-preaching gypsies and the "Wicked Witch of Wall Street" converged at Zuccotti Park Monday to celebrate Halloween amid the weeks-long Occupy Wall Street protest.
Nearly all of the costumes at the demonstration's home base were protest-related — from a witch draped in photocopied money to a stilt walker carrying a sign reading, "Insatiable Growth is Not Sustainable."
"This is my humorous, Halloween way of saying, 'We can't inflate the economy,'" said the stilt walker, Bibi Farber, 48, a Hudson Valley resident and professional performer who paired her stilts with a sparkly pink outfit.
"Nothing can keep growing forever," Farber continued, citing the recent housing bubble. "I feel like money is over. We need to turn toward each other and barter and grow our own food."
Several long-term Occupy Wall Street protesters who had just weathered a freezing, exhausting weekend in Zuccotti Park said they dressed up to raise the group's spirits.
"Instead of politicking about everything, for one day we can have some type of fun," said a 27-year-old man from Queens who goes by "White Tru" and wore the "Ghostface" mask from the "Scream" films.
"I figure I'll dress up a little bit, scare a few people, have a few laughs," he said.
Occupy Wall Street also held costume-crafting workshops for more elaborate corporate-greed-fighting getups, including a new superhero: "Unemployed Man."
Protesters wearing the handmade costumes will march from Zuccotti Park to Greenwich Village for its famous annual Halloween parade.
While Occupy Wall Street protesters donned disguises, other people across the city were dressing up as the protesters — a costume the real demonstrators greeted with bemusement.
"If they're serious about it, I think it's kind of cool," said Yvette Vigo, 45, a Bronx resident who has been living at Occupy Wall Street.
A 22-year-old man from North Carolina who goes by "Poncho" was surprised to hear that anyone would want to be an Occupy Wall Street demonstrator for Halloween.
"It's kind of sad that we're a pop-culture phenomenon now," he said. "But I guess any sort of exposure is good exposure."
