Living Up to Its Halloween Stereotype: Salem, Massachusetts

For the entire month of October, the historic port of Salem, Massachusetts, becomes Halloween Central. Unlike Salem’s 17^th-century history, today witches are celebrated, admired and at the heart of a festival called Salem Haunted Happenings.

The 1692 Salem Witch Trials are the world’s most infamous witch hunts, a dark history Salem has turned to its touristic advantage with museums, tours and activities centering around witches, ghosts and paranormal experiences.

For most of the month, especially the two weekends before Oct. 31, Salem’s streets are alive with goblins, ghosts, vampires, zombies and witches. Visitors who don’t bring costumes have no trouble finding witch hats, vampire teeth and bat wings in shops, and the Haunted Happenings Marketplace is a supermarket of witchy and spooky décor — for your home or for yourself and your kids. The marketplace is further enlivened with parades and pop-up events.

For a more serious look at the 1692 witch hysteria, stop at Witch Museum; to see the authentic setting for America’s favorite gothic tale, visit The House of the Seven Gables. Salem is filled with historic homes and attractions, but for an October family getaway, there’s plenty to see while just walking around the compact downtown and absorbing the local color.

A guided walking tour will not only bring Salem’s history alive for kids, but also add enough local ghostly legends and sightings to keep them interested. For older kids, a nighttime ghost tour includes documented hauntings and delves into Salem’s darkest history, visiting Old Burying Point, Old Town Hall and hotels rumored to be among the most haunted in America.