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A Bewitching
by SEAN
CONNEELY f |ff|6|s|
On a blustery October night, a
cloaked figure turns down a dimly lit alleyway in
Salem, Mass. (pop. 40,407). An attentive crowd
follows, mirroring the mysterious person's every
twist and turn before reaching one of Americas
oldest cemeteries to learn its spooky history.
“I love entertaining our guests with ghost
stories, but also telling them about the history
of Salem," says Justine Curley, who serves as
the mysterious guide on the Haunted Footsteps Ghost Tour, one of many activi
ties offered during the city's monthlong Halloween celebration known as Haunted
Happenings.
For 25 years, Salem has hosted the family-friendly observance of all things eerie
and ethereal, drawing 3(X),(XX) visitors annually to an event that's billed as America’s
Halloween Festival. “It’s tire largest Halloween festival in die country," says Biff
Michaud, CEO of the Salem Witch Museum and founder of Haunted I lap
penings. “We get visitors from all over the country and the world. They all
want to be in Salem for Halfoween."
Salem, infamous for its witch trials of die late l6(X)s, has embraced its
The festival
is a time
for kids to
wear their
favorite
Halloween
costume.
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past. Today, the town is known as “The Witch
City," where the Salem High School mascot
is a witch. The local newspaper. The Salem
| News, sports a witch on its masthead, as do
| the doors of Salem police cars.
I Haunted Happenings began as a one-day
festival in 1982 as a way to create a safe,
family-friendly atmosphere where children
of all ages could come together
and celebrate Halloween.
The festival kicks off with die Grand
. Parade, a costume extravaganza featuring
students from local grade schools and col
leges dressed in costumes ranging from
Superman and I larry Potter to Cinderella
and Power Rangers.
Klaus and Belen Morgenstern of nearby
Lynn, Mass., have attended the event for four
years and find Salem the ideal place to spend
l an October evening. “We love to walk up
and down die streets and look at all the j
different costumes," says Belen, 33.
The festival also includes costume
parties and balls, haunted hous
es and storytelling. All of the
i activities complement Salem’s
& numerous witch-themed
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A police patch
displays the
city’s witchy
heritage.
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museums, historic homes and tour companies.
Salem hasn't always embraced its infamous past. As recently as the early 1980 s,
townspeople preferred to forget the witch trials that took place in 1692 when 20
innocent people were executed, and hundreds more falsely imprisoned.
“People just didn’t talk about it," Michaud says.
Still, Michaud views Haunted Happenings not just as a Halloween
celebration, but also as a vehicle to educate the public about what really
happened during the witch hysteria. Not surprisingly, many of Salem’s
museums tell at least part of the story. At the Witch Dungeon Muse
um, for instance, actors re-create an actual trial, based on an original
1692 court document.
The events of the witch trials are not the sole item on Salem’s
Halloween resume. The town also is home to a number of dwellings
purported to be haunted, including the Gardner-Pingree House, a 200-
year-old mansion said to be inhabited
by the spirit of a sea captain. And then
there is the elegant Hawthorne Hotel,
where some visitors claim to have shared
their room with a ghostly guest.
For historian Jim McAllister, though,
Salem is much more than a collection of ghosts
and graveyards. “For hundreds of years we were
one of the most important ports in the New
World," he says.
In fact, a replica of a late 18th-century tall
ship, The Friendship , bobs in Salem Harbor as a
reminder of the town’s seafaring past. Even Tlx
Friendship takes on a mystical air in October, as
storytellers regale tourists on board the ship with
tales of mystery and mayhem on the high seas,
i One more happening that makes Salem eerily
special, especially on Halloween.
Sean Connee/y is a writer in Red Feather Lakes, Colo.
Haunted Happenings is scheduled Oct. 4 to 31. Click on
this story at americanprofile.com to learn more.
A guide leads an educational and
entertaining tour through one of
SaJem’s historic cemeteries.
-t- a
Page 20
• www.americanprofile.com
The Salem Witch Museum