The commemoration of witchcraft trials refers to the recognition and remembrance of the historical events in which individuals, mostly women, were accused, tried, and often executed for practicing witchcraft. This dark chapter in history took place between the 15th and 18th centuries in Europe and North America and resulted in the persecution and death of thousands of innocent people. Commemorations of witchcraft trials vary in different countries and regions. In some places, such as Salem, Massachusetts, where the infamous Salem witch trials occurred in 1692, there are dedicated memorials, museums, and annual events that serve to remember the victims and educate the public about the injustices that took place. These commemorative activities often include reenactments, lectures, and exhibitions that shed light on the historical context, social dynamics, and consequences of the witch trials. In other parts of the world, such as Europe, where witch trials were widespread and affected numerous countries, efforts to commemorate the trials may take different forms.
New England Living: Ye Olde Pepper Candy Companie 07:44 SALEM - Needham-based TripAdvisor is out with its annual list of the "best travel experiences" for 2023. And when it comes to culture and history, the reviews say you just can't beat one particular attraction in Salem, Massachusetts. The "History and Hauntings of Salem Guided Walking Tour" by Witch City Walking Tours is No. 1 in America on the travel site's list of "best cultural and historical experiences." "There are many Salem tours out there but few are as compelling as this one, led by a local historian who brings alive the city's history at the time of day you choose," TripAdvisor says. "For spookier experience, pick a nighttime tour led by lantern light. Visit the Burying Point Cemetery, Witch House, and Ropes Mansion garden as your guide tells stories of the haunted history of Salem, Massachusetts." The tour experience has a perfect 5.0 rating based on nearly 6,000 reviews. Users raved about the "informative and entertaining" guide to Salem's history and the famous witchcraft trials. The two-hour tours cost $31 for adults. The tour website says visitors will experience "captivating tales of our city's history, chilling tales of the supernatural, while being awed by the breathtaking architecture, and discover the fascinating truth of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials."
New England Living Ye Olde Pepper Candy Companie 07 44 SALEM - Needham-based TripAdvisor is out with its annual list of the best travel experiences for 2023. Rounding out the Top 5 is the USS Arizona Memorial tour in Hawaii s Pearl Harbor, the official Hollywood sign walking tour in Los Angeles, a historical walking tour in Charleston, South Carolina and the Central Park walking tour in New York.
In other parts of the world, such as Europe, where witch trials were widespread and affected numerous countries, efforts to commemorate the trials may take different forms. Some countries have erected monuments or plaques in locations where the trials occurred, serving as a physical reminder of the past. Others hold public discussions, conferences, or exhibitions to raise awareness about the victims, their stories, and the impact of the witch trials on society.
Visiting Salem: Tour ‘Hocus Pocus’ filming locations, the Salem Witch Museum and more
As the leaves on the trees gradually turn to hues of yellow, orange and red the arrival of autumn brings with it New England traditions such as apple picking, fall fairs and the fall harvest.
Autumn also is the perfect time to delve into the fun, fantasy and fright associated with Halloween, with perhaps no place better for it than Salem — famous for the 17th century Salem Witch Trials — making it a hub of for all things fall.
While Salem isn’t the only Massachusetts destination great for celebrating this time of year, its unique history, attractions and fall-time activities greatly complement the season— in addition to the many year-round attractions worth a visit.
See below a list of some of the best this North Shore community has to offer while you make your fall plans.
A reenactment of the Salem Witch Trials. EXT
Visit the Salem Witch Museum
This museum examines “one of the most enduring and emotional events” in U.S. history, according to its website, the infamous Salem Witch Trials which took placed in 1692.
The museum features 13 life-size stage sets, in addition to figures, lighting and narration meant to immerse museum-goers in the “web of lies and intrigue” of the witch-hunt in Salem as well as examines the meaning behind the word witch and depictions of witches over time. Presentations are available every half hour.
The museum also has a mission to “be the voice of the innocent victims of the witch-hunt of 1692″ and also raise awareness of the root causes of witch-hunts and how they continue to affect human society.
The museum is normally open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., but has special extended hours throughout the month of October, according to its website.
Entry to the museum is $16.50 for adults, $15 for senior citizens and $13.50 for children ages three to 14.
The Proctor's Ledge Memorial in Salem (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File) AP
Remember the victims of the trials at a memorial
Two memorials allows visitors and residents of the city to have a space to contemplate the innocent lives lost during the mass hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials.
At an older memorial site on Liberty Street, a handcrafted granite wall surrounds the memorial on three sides with victims’ protests of innocence inscribed into the stone, but interrupted halfway through in a symbolic gesture to society’s indifference to their suffering and how their lives were cut short, according to Salem.org.
There are also six locust trees planted at the site — trees which are the last to flower and the first to lose their leaves, it added. All 20 victims who died have their names and execution dates displayed at the memorial, which is open from dawn until dusk.
Similarly, the Proctor’s Ledge Memorial, located on Pope Street, was built in 2016 to memorialize the location — confirmed by researchers — to be the actual spot of the victims’ hangings, according to the Salem Witch Museum.
The Proctor’s Ledge Memorial is located within a residential neighborhood and there is no parking, so visitors are advised to park at Gallows Hill Park and access the site by walking down the hill, it added.
The House of the Seven Gables in Salem is best known as the setting of author Nathaniel Hawthorne's book of the same name. It is now a museum. Photo courtesy of the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism via Flickr Creative Commons. No changes made.
Explore the House of the Seven Gables
Famous from the 1851 novel of the same name by author Nathaniel Hawthorne, the mind also behind “The Scarlet Letter,” this house dating back to 1668 is storied in history.
The home, known as the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion after notable past residents, was designated as a National Historic Landmark District in 2007, according to its website.
Guests to the site can take a 45-minute guided tour with a professional interpreter or a 30-minute personal audio tour of the historic grounds. Ticket prices increase slightly in October — but children under five can enter for free as well as residents of Salem with proof of residency.
As of this August, guests who wish to enter the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion must wear a mask regardless of vaccination status, the House of the Seven Gables said on its website, but face coverings are not required elsewhere on the grounds.
A private schooner sailing tour in Salem Sound in Massachusetts. Photo courtesy of Tripadvisor.
Take a boat tour of coastal Salem
With Salem being a coastal community, getting your sea legs may be a great way to see the city from a new perspective and learn more about it.
One tour aboard a schooner by Fame of Salem, is one of the most highly rated things to do in Massachusetts, according to Tripadvisor. This one-hour 45-minute tour takes a group of two dozen on an interactive sailing excursion in its replica historic privateer schooner.
“Great for families and anyone who gets bored easily, this adventure keeps you engaged by offering opportunities to help with tasks such as raising the sails and steering the boat,” Tripadvisor said. “Plus, the crew shares stories about the history of Salem and the role played by privateers.”
The cruise takes passengers past the Salem Maritime History Site and out into Salem Harbor and then the route depends on the wind, with historic forts, lighthouses and beautiful waterfront homes in sight no matter which direction, Tripadvisor added.
Other tours which are more fall-centric, offered by Mahi Mahi Harbor Cruises & Events, include a 90-minute “Lighthouse + Foliage Cruise” exploring 14-miles worth of protected coastlines and islands on the North Shore and the 75-minute “Haunted Happenings Harbor Cruise.”
The latter cruise is decked out in “haunted décor” and comes with “spooky photo ops, complementary tarot card readings, face-painting and the perfect balance of festive music and live stories,” according to Mahi Cruises, whose tours take place on its double decker boat the Hannah Glover departing from Pickering Wharf.
Kathy Najimy, Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker as the Sanderson sisters in "Hocus Pocus" (Walt Disney Pictures)
Channel “Hocus Pocus” at its filming locations
This cult classic film which debuted in 1993 starring Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker as the sorceress Sanderson sisters. Its sequel debuts this fall on Sept. 30, making it the perfect time to be on the lookout for its various filming locations in the city.
“Hocus Pocus 2″ finished filming in Salem earlier this year and already has a trailer available to give viewers a sneak peek.
Places in the city where visitors and residents can channel their inner Sanderson sister and get film site photo ops include the Salem Pioneer Village, Salem Common, The Ropes Mansion and Old Town Hall, among other sites, according to Salem.org.
A History & Hauntings of Salem guided walking tour. Photo courtesy of Tripadvisor.
Take a guided walking tour of Salem
Various guided tours are available in Salem for tourists and residents alike to get a new perspective on the city while strolling through it.
Among the most highly rated, according to Tripadvisor’s list of “The Best of the Best Things to Do” in 2022, is the “History & Hauntings” tour presented by Witch City Walking Tours. The travel site said there are many Salem tours but that “few are as compelling as this one.”
The tour is led by a local historian who “brings alive” the city’s history at the time of day you choose, it added. The travel guide recommended a nighttime tour led by lantern light for a “spookier” experience.
Witch City Walking Tours added that its tours invite tour-goers learn more about the city’s 400 years of history while meandering through city’s cobblestone lined streets and taking in its colonial era architecture.
Other tours presented by Witch City Walking Tours include a “Mysteries & Murders of Salem” tour, a “Merchants & Mansions of Salem” tour, as well as a “Hocus Pocus Movie Locations of Salem” tour.
Additionally, the Satanic Salem Walking Tours offers a guided walking tour led by a seasoned guide Thomas Vallor, who has “been educating the masses about the city’s history and the occult for nearly 20 years.”
The one-and-a-half-hour tour meets at Salem’s Derby Square and costs $25 for adults as well as those aged nine and up, while children ages eight and under can take the tour for free.
Vallor leads the tour with his “extensive knowledge of local history through the lens of his experiences as an interfaith occult minister, practicing witch, and Satanic Temple member,” the tour’s website added. The Satanic Temple headquarters is also located in Salem.
Tripadvisor ranks Satanic Salem Waking Tours in first among the tours in Salem, according to its page on the travel site.
A display of dance fans are seen at the exhibit entitled "Geisha: Beyond the Painted Smile" in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki) ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tour the Peabody Essex Museum
Regardless of what time of year you come to Salem, this renowned museum is a great place to stop to appreciate culture, history and art.
The museum its traces its roots back to 1799 with the founding of the East India Marine Society — comprised of captains and supercargoes who had sailed far and wide — and in whose charter stipulated the establishment of “cabinet of natural and artificial curiosities” which would eventually become the museum, according to its website.
Today the museum’s collection houses more than 1.8 million works and holds the distinction as the “oldest continuously operating and collecting museum in the United States,” the Peabody Essex Museum added.
“Its collections of contemporary and historic American, Asian, Maritime, Oceanic, Native American, and African art and culture, as well as its archival library and historic American and Chinese houses, are among the finest of their kind,” the museum said.
The museum is open Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. as well as on Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. according to its website. It is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Admission is $20 for adults, $18 for seniors age 65 and over, $12 for students with ID and free for Salem residents and teens and children under age 16.
Samuel Aschauen, of Katsdorf, Austria, left, and Rohan Jadau, of Gandhi Nagar, India, right, are dressed in costumes as they promenade through downtown Salem, Mass., on Halloween, Sunday Oct. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) AP
Participate in the Festival of the Dead
This annual event series “explores death’s macabre customs, heretical histories, and strange rituals,” and is presented by two Salem warlocks who are the “foremost authorities on the spirit world,” according to its website.
For this year events in the series include a daily Salem Psychic Fair and Witches’ Market throughout October which is free to enter and features paid psychic readings, real practicing witches and an emporium of “magical gifts,” according to its website.
The Psychic Fair and Witches’ Market also features tarot card readings, palm readings, past life readings and spirit mediumship, it added. On Thursdays through Sundays in October the festival is also offering “Messages from the Spirit World: An Authentic Salem Séance” featuring psychic mediums to communicate with the dead.
Other activities in late October include “The Official Salem Witches’ Halloween Ball” on Friday, Oct. 28, “The Mourning Tea,” a remembrance of the dead, on Sunday, Oct. 30, and “The Salem Witches’ Magic Circle” on Halloween.
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Commemorating the witchcraft trials serves multiple purposes. It honors the memory of those who suffered unjustly, acknowledges the atrocities committed during this period, and strives to ensure that similar events do not happen again. These commemorations also allow for a deeper understanding of the historical, social, and cultural factors that led to the mass hysteria and witch-hunts. Furthermore, they create an opportunity for reflection on the importance of justice, religious tolerance, and the protection of human rights in contemporary society. While the witch trials may seem distant and archaic, their impact continues to be felt today. Commemorations provide a platform for examining the lingering effects of the witch-hunts, such as the perpetuation of gender stereotypes and the stigmatization of marginalized groups. They also encourage critical thinking and dialogue about the origins and consequences of mass hysteria, fostering a more enlightened and empathetic society. In conclusion, the commemoration of witchcraft trials plays a crucial role in preserving the memory of the victims and raising awareness about the historical injustices committed during this period. These commemorations seek to educate the public and foster a better understanding of the social, cultural, and religious dynamics that contributed to the witch trials. By remembering the past, we can work towards creating a more inclusive and tolerant society that values justice and human rights..
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