Salem Halloween Casts a Spell Over Visitors

City of “Witch Trials” Hosts One of  the World’s Biggest Halloween Celebrations

The city of Salem, Massachusetts was settled in 1626, its name derived from the Hebrew word for peace, “Shalom.” Ironic that such a tranquil moniker would be chosen for a community that would go down in history as anything but—a city that saw witch trials causing 19 men and women to be hanged, and another crushed to death, for supposedly being witches. Now, hundreds of years later, Salem has embraced its past, and there are said to be more modern-day witches calling the area home than anywhere in the world. As the leaves of autumn swirl, Salem Halloween looms. This is the place to be so prepare yourself for the witching hour!

At Hex, a local witchcraft shop (of which there are many in Salem), I meet a soft-spoken man who is a practicing witch. That is, he follows Wicca, a modern, nature-based and magical religion with roots in ancient ways. In conversation, he dispels many preconceived notions of witches. “Witches are the shamans of the West,” the young man explains, preferring not to give his name. “They’re the original healers, doctors, midwives, priestesses.” He tells me that he was born with psychic capabilities and needed a guiding philosophy in his life. Wicca was the answer, an art form that he says is part philosophy, part religion, and harnesses earth-based energies. “Spells work a little faster than prayers,” he says with a laugh. He also corrects a misperception about witches. “They usually don’t perform magic on others; it’s only with permission.”

1692 Witch Trials

Salem’s purported spell-workers of 1692, however, were not witches by choice and were falsely accused. Pandemonium broke out that year after some young girls started writhing with seizures, throwing Bibles against the wall, and claiming to be possessed. The vivid imaginations of the girls morphed further still when one of their nannies who was from Barbados wove magical, dark tales to pass away the long winter days. One thing led to another and before long, neighbor turned against neighbor and husband against wife with accusations of sorcery. Even a four-year-old girl was accused. To this day the true cause of the girls’ maladies, which spread from one to the other, remains unknown. Epilepsy? Asthma? Lyme disease perhaps?

Now, around every turn, Salem is filled with the history of those days. There’s a Witch Museum with stage sets that relay the web of lies surrounding the trials. A Witch House showcases period furnishings of family life during that era, the house so named because it was owned by a magistrate who helped send the 19 to the gallows—all of whom professed their innocence until their deaths.

Salem Halloween Ghostly Tours 

I take a ghost-themed evening walking tour for an even spookier experience. Our guide talks about the Puritans, who settled in Salem and wanted to “purify” the church. This religious sect that largely colonized New England in the 17^th century , felt that the Church of England at the time was not strict enough. They wanted to take the dial and crank it all the way up. That helps explain why things could feasibly go so wrong in Salem, where a god-fearing group of people were thinking that any wayward behavior meant the devil had infiltrated their midst.

On our ghost tour we view sites said to be displaying paranormal activity. One houses a popular, well-lit restaurant, Turner’s Seafood. But sometimes seen among the building’s dark stairwells is the vision of a Puritan lady in white, Bridget Bishop, who supposedly never missed a day of church. Now she is a “very active spirit,” unhappy with the way she went—by hanging. Nearby, a four-year-old spirit sometimes tugs at the hem of her mother in the street—the two of them imprisoned together for months before the mother was hanged as a witch.

Bewitching Diversions

In the decades and centuries that followed the trials, Salem still seemed bewitched. (In fact, some episodes of the classic TV series “Bewitched” were filmed there.) Nathaniel Hawthorne set his 1851 novel, The House of the Seven Gables, in a historic house in the city that his cousin owned and which has a secret stairway. Hawthorne writes as if the 17^th-century house was a living thing. Today it’s alive with lovely gardens and a museum dedicated to the author. But who knows what lurks beneath the gables?

All these Salem sorcery secrets are fascinating. Yet, tugging at my heart are the thoughts of those that were hung – real people who were mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, – going about their daily lives and trying to be good people, when their worlds were turned upside down. I’m compelled to take a short drive out of town in search of “Proctor’s Ledge,” where the innocent were hanged and their remains dumped. Now it’s a memorial site where I spend somber moments reading the names of the accused and reflecting on them and the crimes committed against them.

Salem Halloween Happenings

 While much in Salem seems related to tales of the occult, I do find many other diversions in the pretty, waterfront city, however. I sail out of the harbor on “Fame,” a replica of an 1812 privateer schooner (a privateer being like a licensed pirate). Salem Sound is scenic and tranquil as we pass forts, lighthouses, and the ultra-wealthy enclave of Marblehead across the way. Docking back at Pickering Wharf, there’s a strip of seafood restaurants, each with a fresh catch better than the next. I opt for dockside dining at Finz Seafood & Grill, enjoying a classic New England clambake of lobster, littlenecks, mussels and chorizo.

Steps from the wharf is where I’ve hung my hat at the Salem Waterfront Hotel & Suites, which is comfortable enough and provides a super-convenient location. From there I walk just a couple of blocks to the oldest witchcraft shop in the city, Crow Haven Corner. Chatting with a man in the shop, I am less surprised at this point to learn that I have met yet another Wicca; and more so to hear that he is a cousin of Nathaniel Hawthorne. It seems like the past reaches out to me everywhere I turn here.

I’m told that the past looms even bigger as Halloween nears, bygone spirits perhaps awakened to haunt those that cursed them. If you’re pondering a visit plan well in advance for October’s “Salem Haunted Happenings,” considered one of the biggest celebrations of Halloween in the world. But, ultimately I decide that whether visiting witch sites, dungeons, or vampire shops (yes, there’s even one of those in Salem), or just enjoying the uniqueness of this pretty city, Salem easily casts a spell with its otherworldly charms no matter what time of year.

www.salem.org