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Before I post picture of our trip, I must say this:
Living nearby to Salem, I've had many opportunities to study the witch trials throughout school. In college, I wrote a term paper on the witch trials for my History of Witchcraft course. I took many trips there before, both in field trips through school and with friends just to hang out. However, it was my first time going in October, during the Halloween season.
I always avoided Salem at Halloween simply because I really don't feel comfortable with the way they "play up" the fact that the witch trials occurred there to the tourists during this time. They close down Main Street and everyone goes crazy with Halloween fever. They have haunted houses, tours, witch exhibits, etc. Having done extensive research on the trials and reading about what actually occurred, I really do feel that this is disrespectful in a lot of ways to the people who were prosecuted during the trials.
I mean, come on. Women (and one man) were accused, thrown into prison, and killed for crimes they never committed. They trembled in fear while being led to their deaths. Their families and friends wept at their graves. The women in the town lived their days in fear of being the next accused.
Now, every year around Halloween, their deaths are made into a mockery, an excuse to get together to celebrate. People trounce through the cemetery and the other historical sites without a thought into what actually happened there, what it actually meant. Somehow it all seems so....disrespectful.
However, since our friends wanted to see Salem at Halloween, we went with them. But while they went into the Haunted Houses, we visited the cemetery to pay respects to those who were executed. And I was so very glad to see that some people thought the same way I did; for there, on each of the graves of those who were executed during the trials, were beautiful white roses.
The bar that inspired Cheers
Boston Common
Salem - Nursing the Guppy
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