Get Your Witch on in Salem, Massachusetts

Halloween is not just for kids.  Wanderlust women can get their witch on with an easy weekend getaway to Salem, Massachusetts. It’s a hoot and a howl as you make your way to the site of the nation’s infamous witch trials.

The Salem Witch Trials were a huge blight on the city’s storied past – a shameful mark on its history but a chapter they market to the Nth degree in the 21st century.  In 1692, 19 men and women were convicted of being witches by a crazed populace, following very public trials.  They were hung on gallows hill, while yet one more poor soul was buried under heavy rocks for refusing to stand trial on these ridiculous charges.  The Puritans believed Satan recruited witches to do his work on Earth.

You could be persecuted for not going to church, talking to yourself or for even speaking French.  One poor girl, Tituba, was convicted as a witch for merely stimulating the imaginations of the young girls she cared for and then weaving a fantastic tale of a witch community.  Poor Tituba learned her lesson the hard way.

Today, visitors can venture to the site of so many of the trials and visit the cemetery where many of the accused, their alleged victims and their persecutors are buried.  Take a journey to the House of Seven Gables, where author Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote many of his famous books.  And during the Halloween festivities, the Gables mansion hosts many re-enactments of the trials, including the Legacy of the Hanging Judge, Hawthorne’s great great grandfather, John Hathorne.  (Yes, it is not a typo.  His name was Hathorne and Nathaniel added a “w” to try to distance himself from his infamous relative.)  I must tell you that the night-time tours of the House are the BEST.

They are spooky, scary and come with a warning that it is not appropriate for young children.  (Oddly enough, during my visit, all of the adults were screaming and the one young toddler who managed to sneak in with his parents was laughing all the way – probably because of the insane screams coming from his parents!)

There are candlelight tours of the cemeteries and many, many haunted houses to whet your spooky appetite.  You can also visit the Salem Witch Museum for a bit of fun and history; The Peabody Essex Museum for incredible art and culture; and explore maritime Salem at the tall ship Friendship.  (In the 18th century, Salem developed into a major international port for fishing, shipbuilding and trading and buy 1790 it was the sixth largest city in the country and the richest per capita.)

Halloween is celebrated all month long in Salem and the ghosts and goblins know how to party.  And for wandering baseball fans………this is the best time of year to visit Massachusetts, especially if BoSox and The Yankees are in the playoffs .

TOURIST TIPS:

1.  Salem is congested at this time of year and the main thoroughfare is actually a pedestrian walkway.  Since parking can be a problem, you would be better off staying outside of the center of town.  I stayed at a Homewood Suites in Peabody, complete with indoor pool and free breakfast (the extra perk is that it was quite near the biggest Christmas Tree Shop I had ever been too!)  It was a 10-15 minute ride to Witchville, depending on the traffic,  but it beats the higher priced hotels in the center of Salem.

2.  Be prepared to walk.  Salem is meant for exploring but don’t bother to buy a ticket for the trolley that goes around town.  On the weekends it is packed and you can often spend a great deal of time waiting at the trolley stop only to find that when it arrives, it is too full to take on more passengers.

3.  Psychics and witches – I am a believer in the esoteric and other-worldly powers of some “gifted” individuals.  Now, while I am sure there are some talented people with psychic ability in Salem, I found many of them to be a gimmick and often taking advantage of the gullible among us, especially the teen-aged wanderlust women.  There is no privacy in some of these shops and your reading takes place behind a curtain, allowing everyone in the shop to hear the predictions she is supposedly making just for you.  Funny enough, stay in the shop long enough and you will hear that almost everyone is given the same forecast.  Better to spend your money on a drink at one of the many eateries and watering holes and people watch the other gullible in costume.