Halloween is the number one holiday in America!

Ok, the retailers will say Christmas is number one, but when you live in Haunt Central I think you will find the local hotels, restaurants, retailers, and attractions all say Halloween is king in Salem.

This is a month of buying, eating and staying local for Salem and without the revenue of Halloween Salem would just be another historic maritime town with it’s roots going back to the beginning of our nation… But that is another story!

Halloween and witchcraft

The whole witchcraft thing, as most people know, goes back to 1692 and is one of my favorite places to photograph all that is connected to the trials. First up is the Salem Witch House which was the home of Jonathan Corwin. His best known for the part he played in the Salem Witch trials as one of the magistrates.

There were of course no witches back in 1692 and fear and intolerance seem to be the lead suspects in this terrible year. My own ancestor Bethsheba (Folger) Pope was a minor but significant player in the witch trials. Significant because she accused Martha Corey, John Proctor, and Rebecca Nurse of witchcraft. Now I have no way of knowing what went through her mind back then but I do know she was born and raised a Quaker and they were persecuted by the Puritans to the point of having ears cut off and tongues slit. Here is my entire gallery of images of the Witch House of Salem.

Repercussions of what we do

Maybe that had something to do with her actions, but we know that on 19 March during the trial of Martha Corey, the transcripts say that “good woman Pope did throw her muff at the accused but it fell short”. I read this and was amazed but the following statement floored me. “Mrs. Pope then doff her shoe and threw it at the accused, hitting her on the side of her head”.

Was this payback or something deeper? Were the persecutions against the Quakers coming back to haunt the village of Salem? Well if we ever create a time machine, I know where I want to go back to and ask some questions…

This is just one of a multitude of places to visit in Salem and below you will find some suggestions to explore during a trip to Salem Massachusetts.

Downtown Salem explorations

Haunted good times can be found almost anywhere you look throughout downtown. All sorts of haunted fun can be found one mile wide downtown. We have:

Trolley tours
Plays
Magic acts and much more…
OH! Don’t forget the 40+ Eateries!
And Nine Dunkin Donuts within 2 miles of downtown…

Witch museums
The psychic festival
Haunted houses
30 or more walking tours of all flavors
- Haunted
- ghost
- cemetery
- witch
- and of course, historical
- also…

Is there any reality to all this haunted business?

Well for myself, I’ve never had any contacts from the other side and not because I don’t believe, I just haven’t been convinced. I did have one occasion some years back when I was photographing Saint Peters’s church at night and this is the church at the corner of Brown and Church streets. They have a small graveyard on either side of the bright red front door. (which is why I was photographing it).

As you look through each of these images you will see just to the right of the tower a circle of light (or an orb). The first two are the original shot and then a close-up and then I re-positioned the camera slightly and then the second shot. (I did not enhance these at all)

vertical of St Peters in Salem with an orb, maybe

vertical of St Peters in Salem with an orb,

I didn’t see the light with my eyes and not until I got home. The orb (for lack of a better term) seems to be directly over the graveyard… Hmmm… Well, I don’t think there were any bright lights to cause a reflection on the lens (I had a lens hood on to prevent spurious reflections) and I really don’t know what caused it… I leave that up to you my good readers…

The Visitors Center

The members of the National Park run the Visitor’s Center. They do their best to give you balanced information between the historical and commercial attractions that the city has to offer. Being a Federal agency they can’t tell you which is best.

My suggestion is to also check Trip Advisor for Salem attractions and see which ones have high ratings and great reviews. Also when it comes to tours, I suggest you call the tour operator and ask them point blank what they will be talking about. If you want history and get ghost stories, you won’t be happy.

Jeff Foliage Folger

Autumn is a state of mind more than a time of year – Jeff Foliage

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