The Halloween celebrations in Salem Massachusetts set records year after year as people from all over the state and even around the world travel to experience the Halloween festivities. Estimates suggest 200,000 to 250,000 people were in Salem over the Halloween weekend. Even when Halloween is on a Monday this year, the city still expects big crowds. Many streets in downtown Salem get shut down for the night as live music, DJ's, and carnival rides attract all sorts of people dressed up for the occasion.
Trick-or-Treating brings children of all ages walking around their neighborhoods to knock on neighbors' doors and collect mountains of candy that their parents will later go through before allowing them to eat two or three treats then go to bed. They dress up as their favorite Disney characters, their favorite super heroes, and their favorite book characters. I've got lots of pictures from my first year as a pumpkin, to my Nala costume, to my Cinderella costume, to my Witch costume. Handing out candy at my house this year, my parents will probably run into many of these characters and more.
At college, lots of people dress up and go to parties, sporting clever costumes or coordinating with their friends so that each person is a different kind of fruit. Either way, Halloween seems to lose some of its charm when there is no trick-or-treating, live music, and carnivals.
Not everyone likes Halloween. I, however, grew up in a place where Halloween was always a really big event. Salem Massachusetts became a center for Halloween traditions and fun.
Halloween is thought to have originated from a Celtic Festival of Samhain. October 31st was a night where the lines between the Living and Dead blurred and the Celts believed ghosts of the dead returned to Earth. Immigrants coming to America during Colonial times and thereafter brought Halloween traditions and made it popular here. In the late 1800's, there was a push to make Halloween less about scares and tricks and more about community: parties became the norm. By 1920, trick-or-treating practices resumed.
The Salem Witch Trials happened long after Halloween traditions began, but the idea of witchcraft and the accusations that happened in Salem tied the city's history into ideas about Halloween. Years after the terrible deeds that occurred in Salem, the idea of black magic and witches became popularized in American culture, and the history of Salem set up monuments and museums to educate the public about what happened.
Today, a trip to Salem could mean touring historical museums, or celebrating the carnival-like traditions that Halloween has brought to Salem. Being away at school for the holiday, I miss being a part of the live music and bands that play in the streets of Salem on Halloween, and the decor that all the people visiting Salem have. Costumes make it hard for people to recognize their friends in a crowd, but bring about a lot of fun.
I miss home a little extra on Halloween--I've got too many assignments to worry about to make the trip back and forth on the train--but I can't wait to see all the pictures of Salem.
