Salem, Massachusetts, was put on the map by the Salem Witch Trials, a dark moment in history when innocent people were accused of witchcraft. Today, the city is home to pagan Witches, and capitalises on a wave of Witch tourism popularised by movies like Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic. October is a riot in Salem when it hosts the Haunted Happenings festival. Easy to visit on a day trip from Boston, find out how to learn more about this fascinating place, and channel your inner witch.
Haunted Happenings in Salem
Haunted Happenings was first run over a weekend in 1982, as a low-key affair. The tri-centennial of the Salem Witch Trials in 1992 and released of Hocus Pocus in 1993 (filmed in Salem), raised the profile of Salem as a tourist destination, and in turn Haunted Happenings.
Now, Haunted Happenings is a month-long festival running throughout October. During this time, the city is awash with Witch themed celebrations – decorated houses, over-the-top shop window displays, elaborate costumes, crazy parades and Witch parties. Pretty much everyone will be wearing a Witch’s hat as standard attire.
Unfortunately, all this Witch excitement also means crowds, and lots of them during Haunted Happenings. Around one million tourists flood to Salem in October alone, and high numbers spill over into September and November. In fact, Salem has become a year-round tourist hot spot.
Note – if you do want to visit Salem during Haunted Happenings, then be prepared for long queues. Also, make sure that you pre-book any accommodation or activities well in advance for this time.
We visited on 29 September, just 48 hours before Haunted Happenings started. It was quiet for the first half of the day, before filling up a little in the afternoon, although it wasn’t too bad (it was a Monday!).
Getting to Salem from Boston
Salem is a North Shore seaport town about 22 miles northeast of Boston.
I would avoid driving to Salem as the city is relatively small and parking is limited. During Haunted Happenings, the roads into Salem are often stationary and you will just lose time trying to chase a space and get parked. Also, Salem is a very walkable place and so you don’t need a car to get around. There is a Trolley Bus for exploring if desired.
Train – taking the double-decker train from North Station in Boston is easy and only takes 30 minutes, brining you straight into the centre of Salem. You can prebuy tickets on the MBTA App. During Haunted Happenings, I understand that the train can fill up so plan to catch an early train if possible.
Ferry – If you have more time, then you could catch the ferry from Boston to Salem for travel with a view. The ferry takes 50 minutes, plus check in time (the ferry company was suggesting arriving an hour before departure). So, whilst you will have some lovely views on the way, it will eat into your time in Salem, but it’s an option.
Fuel up at Reds
Start your day with a hearty breakfast or brunch at Reds Sandwich Shop (15 Central Street) in a red wooden building once used as a Patriot meeting house in 1698 before the American Revolution (then the London Coffee House).
Reds has a great menu of American classics for breakfast – blueberry pancake stacks with bacon and maple syrup, pumpkin spiced lattes and much more. This will set you up nicely for the day. We didn’t book and got a table straight away, but I envisage long queues during Haunted Happenings.
Choose your Witch’s hat at Emporium 32
Across Central Street from Reds is Emporium 32 selling some great Witch and ghost related items. They also sell Witches Hats, so you can pick one to wear on your day in Salem. You’ll be a in minority if you’re not wearing one!
Join a History & Hauntings Guided Walking Tour
Taking a walking tour of Salem will help you get to grips with the city’s Witch history and there are lots of different guided tours on offer. We booked the History & Hauntings Guided Tour through Get Your Guide. This tour lasts for 2 hours and cost around $27 per person.
Some people on the tour were as interested in Hocus Pocus film locations as they were in the history. Interestingly, Hocus Pocus didn’t do very well at the time of its release, but has become a cult classic over the years and since the 300th anniversary of the Salem Witch Trails. Note – you’ll see two Hocus Pocus sights on this walking tour, but the main Hocus Pocus House is just outside downtown Salem on Ocean Avenue, which you’ll have to visit separately.
The Salem Witch Trials
Setting the scene – Europe had been gripped by a fear of witches for two centuries with thousands of people were accused of witchcraft, before being tortured and executed. By the end of the 17th century, with more skeptical governments reasserting control, Witch fever began to die down in Europe. However, it was making its way across the Atlantic to New England, and the small Puritan settlement of Salem in Massachusetts.
At this time, in Salem belief in God was absolute – you either believed and accepted the word of God whole-heartedly, or you were the devil. Against a backdrop of harsh winters, disputes with neighbours, and intense rivalries between villagers, the atmosphere was one of anxiety, paranoia, and suspicion. Everyone was looking over their neighbours’ shoulders and looking for ‘monsters’ in their community.
When a couple of 11-year-old girls started acting as if they were possessed, with more girls following suit, the new ‘fire and brimstone’ Reverend of Salem declared that they were under an evil hand and forced the girls to say who had ‘cast a spell’ on them. Women in the village who didn’t conform, or go to church, were identified, and put on trial as witches. Some men were also opportunistically accused, more because of rivalries and disputes with people in power in Salem. In total, over 200 people were accused of witchcraft during this period.
The Salem Witch Trials took place in 1692-93, and 20 people were executed – 19 were hung on Gallows’ Hill and Giles Corey was pressed to death with heavy stones on his chest. 4 additional people died in prison awaiting trial. Eventually, after the witch hysteria died down, it was confirmed that they were all innocent, and not witches after all.
Cry Innocent – on your visit to Salem, try to catch the reenactment of The Salem Witch Trials called Cry Innocent by History Alive at the Old Town Hall.
“The year is 1692. Bridget Bishop is accused of witchcraft, and you are the Puritan jury. Hear the testimony. Cross-examine the witnesses. Decide the outcome. Live, interactive, and critically acclaimed. Play your part in history!”
Read – Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible (1953) which is based on the Salem Witch Trials.
Derby Square and the Old Town Hall
Our tour started in Derby Square in front of the Old Town Hall which was built between 1816 and 1817 and is the oldest surviving municipal building in Salem. The upper floor was used as a public hall with the first floor serving as a market, like the original use of Faneuil Hall in Boston.
Hocus Pocus Note 1 – you might recognize the Old Town Hall from the final scenes of the film Hocus Pocus, as it serves as the setting for the school dance.
The Witch House (310 Essex Street)
Our next stop was outside The Witch House, the prior home of Jonathan Corwin, one of the judges in The Salem Witch Trials who found the innocent guilty. He had a privileged position in society and believed that the supernatural had pervaded the village.
You can pay to enter The Witch House, although it was fully booked on the Monday we were in Salem, so book early!
Ropes Mansion & Garden (318 Essex Street)
A striking white Georgian Colonial Mansion built in the late 1760s, bought by Judge Nathaniel Ropes. He died of smallpox the day after his house was attacked by colonists who thew mud, stones and sticks at the windows. His daughter, Abigail, died in the Ropes Mansion when her dress caught fire. The ghosts of both Abigail and Nathaniel are said to haunt the house.
Hocus Pocus Note 2 – you might recognize this as Alison’s House in Hocus Pocus!
Chestnut Street District
The walking tour passed along Botts Court Lane to affluent and leafy Chestnut Street where the doorsteps of the large houses were bedecked with wonderful Autumnal Halloween displays.
Look out for the blue plaque denoting where author Nathaniel Hawthorn lived. He wrote The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables.
Across the road was an imposing red brick building called Hamilton Hall, named after Alexander Hamilton, who spoke there.
Salem Witch Trail Memorial (Liberty Street)
The Salem Witch Trials Memorial was the last stop on the Walking Tour. It is a simple, but moving, memorial to the innocent who were accused of witchcraft and executed. On the ground, at the front of the memorial are direct quotes from the accused’s testimonials in the trial – “God knows I am innocent”, “I am wholly innocent of such wickedness”, “Oh Lord, help me”.
The names of those who died are etched on stone seats around a semi-circular directly in front of the cemetery. Apparently, the Judges of the Witch trails are buried just over the wall, which is deliberate so they can ‘face those’ who they sentenced to death back.
Witch tourism
The Salem Witch Trails were not something that the city was proud off and it distanced itself from witchcraft as much as possible for a long time afterwards.
‘Bewitched’
Then in 1970, eight episodes of the popular American TV Series Bewitched were filmed in Salem. Bewitched featured Samantha the witch trying to live a suburban life with her husband and children, without using her magic powers. This kickstarted the Witch tourism as Bewitched followers came to visit. A statue of actress Elizabeth Montgomery, who played Samantha, was erected in Salem to mark the 40th anniversary of the programme, which we passed on the walking tour.
Salem Witch Museum
In 1972, the Salem Witch Museum opened – it chronicles the history of the infamous witch trails and looks at the evolution of witches more generally.
Note – In 2023, daily newspaper USA Today voted the Salem Witch Museum ‘the second biggest tourist trap in the world’. We decided to learn about the Salem Witch Trials on the walking tour have the history brought to life by a guide, instead of visiting the museum.
Modern witchcraft in Salem
A lady called Laurie Cabot opened a witch shop in Salem in 1971, capitalising on the Bewitched effect in the city – it was the first of its kind in Salem. She started a coven (which included her daughters) and practiced the pagan religion of Wicca.
A story goes that, in 1976 the Red Sox baseball team were on a losing streak, so they asked Laurie Cabot to go to an away game with them, and they won. Mike Dukakis was the governor at the time and dubbed Laurie “the official witch of Salem”.
Today, there are many modern practitioners of Wicca in Salem, and every second shop seems to be settling crystals.
Book an Aura Reading at HausWitch (Main Street)
A couple of places in Salem offer Aura Readings, where your body’s electromagnetic energy is captured and converted into colours on a photograph, which are then interpreted for you. We booked a Personal Rainbow Relationship Aura Package at HausWitch, where my husband and I could have a joint aura reading. Individual packages are available.
I went first, entering a retro looking photobooth in the corner of the HausWitch shop and sat with my hands resting on metal plates whilst my photo was taken. This produced a polaroid photo showing my rainbow aura above my head. Then my husband was photographed, before we sat in the photobooth together and had a joined photo taken.
An Aura Technician then sat with us and spent time interpreting our aura photographs, first individually, and then together. We found the interpretation to be very positive and thoughtful, cleverly ‘tuning in to the energy that we were putting out’. It was fascinating to see the differences in our auras, and view what happens when we combine as a couple.
Our friends also had a Personal Rainbow Relationship Aura reading and their aura colours were completely different to ours, as they should have been!
You can then keep your aura photos as a keepsake.
Note – Personal Rainbow appointments are released one month in advance. Booking is advised.
Other Witch activity ideas
Outside of Haunted Happenings, there are still loads of great activity ideas for Witchy fun in Salem, such as:
- A photo session at Witch Pix Photography Studio – dress up with your friends and get photographed with cauldrons and broomsticks.
- Decorate your own broom at The Witchery to hang over your doorframe for protection.
- Shop for wands and black cats (stuffed varieties) on Essex Street or in the Witch City Mall, a retro themed shopping centre, where everything is witchy inside.
- Pick up some wonderful, themed candles and perfumes at Diehl Marcus & Company.
- Visit the Ouija Board Museum, a private collection of hundreds of boards and related popular culture movie posters.
- Take a Tarot card or clairvoyant reading.
- Enjoy an immersive theatre play are the Gallows Hill Museum Theatre.
- Book a Candlelight Ghost tour (as a change from Witch activities).
Remember – If you’re travelling to Salem during Haunted Happenings, or other holiday times, you will need to book your activities in advance.
Final thoughts…
Our day out to Salem on the train from Boston was a big hit, and not as ‘tacky’ as we imagined it might have been. That said, we visited outside of Haunted Happenings and so the city perhaps wasn’t in full swing. And it was a Monday…
Somehow, from a dark past, this city has turned things around and built a whole tourist industry based on witches, despite the irony that the accused weren’t witches in the first place. Now today, there are self-proclaimed Witches making their homes in Salem, with the difference that we have nothing to fear from them.
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