Saturday October 8th is World Zombie Day. In London and 50 other cities in different countries thousands of zombies will walk the streets looking for living humans to eat. No, actually, that’s not true. The zombies will be real people in spectacular make-up and costumes. The reason they are taking part is to raise money for charity. The London event will concentrate on hunger and homelessness. Last year it raised money for St Mungo’s Broadway, a London charity that helps homeless people.
pittsburgh
World Zombie Day began in 2006 in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. This is a suburb of Pittsburgh, the zombie city par excellence. The Monroeville Mall was the location of George Romero’s cult 1978 zombie movie, The Dawn of the Dead. The film’s producer was an Italian, Claudio Argento. His more famous brother, Dario Argento, was a script consultant. Dario also wrote some of the film’s music.
The Dawn of the Dead was the second of George Romero’s “Living Dead” movies. The first was 1968’s The Night of The Living Dead. This was filmed in Pittsburgh, specifically on Carson Street, on the city’s South Side. Every year there is a Zombie Fest on Carson Street, although the date is different. This year’s Fest took place last month. Like World Zombie Day, it is inspired by a horror movie, but its intentions are good. People – or zombies – who take part are invited to bring a “non-perishable donation for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.”
i am legend
George Romero played an important role in making the zombie genre popular, but he wasn’t the only one. 1971 was the year of the movie Omega Man. This starred Charlton Heston as a man who believes that, after the apocalypse, he is the only person alive on Earth. Later he discovers that he has neighbours: the only problem is that they are zombies. The film was based on Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel, I am Legend.
africa
As for the word zombie, it is something of a mystery. It first appeared in the English language in 1819, when the Romantic poet Robert Southey wrote a History of Brazil. The word was probably of African origin and was taken to the Americas by slaves. It also became part of the Haitian French dialect. A zombie is a corpse that “rises up” from the grave. This could explain why the exact location of London’s World Zombie Day is always announced at the last minute. When someone asked for details on the official Facebook page, they were told to be patient. The announcement said: “We are still dead and buried in our graves. We will start clawing a way out soon!”.