Birgit Cross

What a crazy experience this has been !!

History as a basis for nowadays hype.
Even on a cold Tuesday in early October, the town is packed with people dressed up. We were wondering if there was a special event. But as the guy in the visitor center said to us 'October is Halloween and the town goes crazy. It's like this every day'

Or as Fergus put it 'the town has become an unofficial theme park'

And here is the history -
👆The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, MA, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft.
A special court was convened in Salem to hear the cases; the first convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hanged that June. Eighteen others followed Bishop to Salem’s Gallows Hill, while some 150 more men, women and children were accused over the next months.
👆By September 1692, the hysteria had begun to abate and public opinion turned against the trials. Though the Massachusetts General Court later annulled guilty verdicts against accused witches and granted indemnities to their families, bitterness lingered in the community, and the painful legacy of the Salem witch trials would endure for centuries.
👆In an effort to explain by scientific means the strange afflictions suffered by those "bewitched" Salem residents in 1692, a study published in Science magazine in 1976 cited the fungus ergot (found in rye, wheat and other cereals), which toxicologists say can cause symptoms such as delusions, vomiting and muscle spasms.

Of course, lots of other important historic events in Salem are linked to the American Revolution in 1775 and seafaring and shipbuilding.

But all of this pales against the Halloween craze this time of year.Read more