Salem

I didn't quite understand how big Halloween is in the American psyche. I thought it was just something that happened on 31st October every year when the kids went out trick or treating. How wrong was I? It's an October long celebration. There are pumpkins and straw men, witches and cobwebs, spiders and ghouls, Frankensteins and broomsticks everywhere you look. And the capital of all Halloween celebrations is Salem. 

It is massive! I wanted to stay here but every piece of accommodation is booked from the hostels through to the $500 a night bed and breakfasts. I couldn't even get a parking spot. I ended up paying $20 for a space about a mile out of town just so I could check it out. I really thought I wouldn't like it but I've got to say its actually pretty cool.

The entire thing started in 1692 when in a fit of mass hysteria (you know the type, when someone posts some ridiculous fact on facebook and you pass it on then find out later it was rubbish). That is essentially what happened here, or the 17th century version of it anyway. Twenty people were executed because they were practising witchcraft. The charge seems unlikely on a number of levels. The most obvious one being that they weren't actually practising witchcraft. It turns out if your were unpopular or had a particularly attractive parcel of land then you may very well become a target of accusation. 

Anyway not long after the entire sordid affair it was realised that a great folly had been undertaken and many of the accused families received compensation and had their convictions overturned. The place of burial for the accused and the oak tree they were strung up from were quietly forgotten and in the case of the tree cut down. Which conveniently brings me to my time in Salem. Well I visited the home of the hanging judge John Harthorne and went on a walking tour with a Wiccan (it seems my odyssey with religion is not over. I may have chosen not to visit the Mormon holy sites but I have now actively participated in a Wiccan ceremony).

The walking tour was kind of cool. We visited the memorial to those who were sentenced to death in the Salem Witch Trials. 

You get an idea of how many people are in Salem from the first pic. You can see some benches on the left hand side, the second and third photos show a close up with their names, how they died and the date.

You will notice a couple of things about the next two pics. Firstly you can see the cemetery being trashed by all the visitors but the thing that is interesting to me is the big oak tree in the middle. It is exactly that kind of tree than you would have been hanged from. The other thing that grabs my attention are the gifts being left on the gravestones. I have no idea who these people are (obviously they are significant) but the Puritans would have been horrified to have their gravestones desecrated by a Pagan ritual such as leaving money. The irony is delicious. 

So how did I end up in a Wiccan ritual? Well I thought a walking tour would be fun. I didn't really want the whole haunted house and ghost mumbo jumbo so when I saw that real witches were running tours I jumped at the chance. What grabbed my attention the most was how real witches came to be in Salem in the first place. 

Believe it or not it is a fairly recent phenomenon. It all started with TV show Bewitched. Those of you old enough will remember Elizabeth Montgomery in the lead role as Samantha Stevens. It came to Salem after a fire on the set and they had to improvise so they did some location shooting. It breathed life into Salem and helped turn it into a tourist mecca. People started coming and wanted to hear about witches. As there were no real witches about people donned some green face paint, pretended they were witches and started taking the mighty tourist dollar. The Wiccans didn't want their reputation trashed so they moved to Salem to do real witch stuff.

So 280 years after the witch trials Salem finally got itself some real witches. It was a fascinating way to learn about the place. I am not converting to any of them by the way. Amish, Quaker, Mormon, Puritan, Pagan or Wiccan. But you would have to agree that the area is rich in religious diversity and history. I have bedded down in Boston for the night. Tomorrow I think I will go to the Columbus Day Parade, I'm told its a big thing here in Boston. Make hay while the sun shines.