Salem, Massachusetts is already geared up for its month long "Haunted Happenings." The Salem Police Department is expecting crowds of up to 100,000 to visit the "Witch City" the night of Halloween alone, and numbers almost as large the weekend before.
Salem is considered the most popular destination for Halloween due to its haunting past, but how have the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 transformed Salem and when did it become such a popular Halloween destination?
The city of Salem created its first celebration of "Haunted Happenings" thirty years ago, and it continues to grow every year.
"The growth of Haunted Happenings [from a one-day event to the month-long festival it is today] paralleled the growth of Halloween as a popular holiday for all ages," said Kate Fox, Executive Director of Destination Salem, which heads the marketing of the Haunted Happenings.
Salem Witch Trials play an important role both in the activities and sights of the fall in Salem.
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"We use the Halloween celebration as a platform to both entertain and educate our visitors who are interested in the Salem Witch Trials," said Fox.
For Stacy Tilney, the Director of Communications at the Salem Witch Museum, Halloween is a secular holiday separated from the Salem witch history.
"The two distinct stories simply exist side by side within the same city," Tilney said.
The History of Halloween
Halloween traditions started long before the Salem Witch trials. According to Director of Education at Salem Witch Museum, Alison D'Amario, October was the typical month of harvest and many would celebrate by holding large gatherings of the community and feasting on the fall bounty. During this time of the month -- and particularly on the current day of Halloween -- people also held beliefs that the distance between the spiritual and physical world was very thin; making the allure of contact with the supernatural not only frightening, but also exciting.
The earliest of these traditions can be seen in the 10th century Gaelic festival known as Samhain. The original jack-o-lanterns came from this tradition as turnips, rather than pumpkins. The Pagans' festival of All-Hallows-Even (evening) or All Souls Day continued the tradition and led to what is now considered Halloween.
Witches in History
The theory of witches was created by suspicion of those who remained Pagan, instead of converting to Christianity. People began to suspect certain women of making evil potions in the woods.
In the Medieval Ages, it was believed that women were more likely to be witches, as women are more susceptible to evil than men. The stereotypical idea of the witch comes from this period, often seen in medieval style clothes.
