Catasauqua This Week: Parade Date Set, Boo at the Zoo, and Home Football

This week in Catasauqua and North Catasauqua turns to Halloween planning and home football. The joint Catasauqua/North Catasauqua Halloween Parade has its date and route set for Wednesday, October 21, Boo at the Zoo opens its first of three weekends Saturday at the Lehigh Valley Zoo, and the Rough Riders host Palisades at Alumni Field Friday night. Here is what is happening in and around the two boroughs this week, plus three places to eat that are new to this blog.

Local News and Community Happenings

The big news this week is that the joint Catasauqua/North Catasauqua Halloween Parade has its date and route set. The parade steps off Wednesday, October 21 at 7:00 p.m., with a rain date of Wednesday, October 28, per the Morning Call's 2026 guide to Lehigh Valley Halloween parades. The route begins at Walnut and 14th streets, follows S. John Street, Church Street to Howertown Street, Howertown to Bridge Street, then Fourth Street to Buttonwood Street to Sixth Street, ending at the North Catasauqua Playground. The Astound community channel ATVN airs the parade Wednesday, October 21 at 10:00 p.m. and repeats it Thursday, October 22 at 9:00 p.m.

For the civic calendar, Catasauqua Borough Council holds its monthly business meeting Monday, October 19 at 7:00 p.m. at Borough Hall, 90 Bridge Street, livestreamed via GoToMeeting, and the borough's planning commission follows Wednesday, October 21 at 6:30 p.m. Halloween season is otherwise locked in: Catasauqua's Trunk or Treat runs Saturday, October 24 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the American Street parking lot, and both Catasauqua and North Catasauqua hold trick-or-treat on Halloween night, Saturday, October 31, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

If Sunday's Autumnfest at Albert Memorial Park was postponed by weather, the North Catasauqua Betterment Committee's announced rain date is Saturday, October 17; details post on the borough's news page. And on the gridiron, the Rough Riders are coming off a 30-13 road win at Pen Argyl on October 10 and return home to Alumni Field Friday night.

At the Catasauqua Area School District

The district's board of education meets tonight, Tuesday, October 13, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. at the District Administration Office, 201 N. 14th Street, with agendas posted on the district site ahead of time. Wednesday morning, Catasauqua High School juniors take the PSAT from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m., per the district's October calendar.

Friday night, the varsity football team hosts Palisades at Alumni Field at 7:00 p.m. in Colonial League Division B play. At Sheckler Elementary, Red Ribbon Week runs October 19-23, a week of drug-awareness activities coordinated with the school's PANDAS parent group. The next early-dismissal day is Wednesday, October 21, when all buildings let out early for a faculty meeting; the downloadable district calendar on cattysd.org has the full year of holidays, in-service days, and board dates. Fall schedules for soccer, volleyball, and cross country, plus any game changes, post on the athletics site at roughriderathletics.org.

Things to Do in the Area

Boo at the Zoo opens its 2026 run this weekend at the Lehigh Valley Zoo, 5150 Game Preserve Road in Schnecksville, on October 17-18, October 24-25, and October 31, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. each day. The family event features trick-or-treating with sustainable, palm-oil-free candy, costume contests, mascots, and family activities, and it is about a 25-minute drive from Catasauqua.

For music, Vitamin String Quartet and Girl Named Tom share the Musikfest Cafe stage at SteelStacks in Bethlehem on Sunday, October 18 at 7:30 p.m., an intimate 500-seat room on the South Side about 15 minutes away. If you want a quick trunk-or-treat closer to home before the boroughs' big nights, Lehigh Valley Moms' 2026 list includes Whitehall Manor on Wednesday, October 14, and Kolapechka Park and Covered Bridge Park in Allentown plus Northern Lehigh Eagle's Nest Park in Slatington on Friday, October 16.

For spooky-season outings, the Morning Call's 2026 Lehigh Valley ghost guide, published October 8, rounds up haunted houses, corn mazes, and haunted hayrides across the region, and Grim's Orchard & Family Farms in Breinigsville keeps its Fall Festival going weekends through November 1 with apples, pumpkins, and a corn maze. Foliage is near its usual mid-to-late-October peak, so a leaf-peeping drive through the Lehigh Valley or up toward Jim Thorpe in Carbon County makes a good afternoon outing.

Good Places to Eat Nearby

This week's picks are all new to the blog. Grove Street Pub & Grill at 1092 Howertown Road sits on the North Catasauqua side of the borough, a neighborhood pub that opened in December 2021 in the former Blue Monkey building, per the Morning Call, and bills itself as "Your Neighborhood Place." The kitchen runs casual American fare, from burgers and cheesesteaks to bourbon BBQ wings and French onion soup, alongside craft beer, wine, and cocktails; call (610) 477-3305 or find them on Facebook at facebook.com/grovestreetpub. It is the rare local pub whose name matches the street this home sits on.

Sazon Dominicano Restaurante at 215 Bridge Street in Catasauqua serves authentic Dominican cooking, including roasted pork with rice and beans and chicken mofongo, in a casual, family-run room open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; call (610) 443-0230 or see sazon-dominicano-restaurante.hey-restaurants.com. And Palermos Italian Grill at 11 E. 24th Street in Northampton is a neighborhood Italian grill about ten minutes from the borough, well-reviewed on Google; call (610) 262-4700 or see palermositaliangrill.com.