Salem, Massachusetts is the perfect location to spend the first day of the fall season!
Stickwork: Patrick Dougherty
Salem brings in one million tourists annually because of its fall foliage and known history of the Salem Witch Trials that took place in 1692. It has always been a dream of mine to visit the town of Salem, a place where my favorite holiday, Halloween, is publicized. Even at the change of season, Salem continues to celebrate the fall. The town of Salem is the perfect place to gather at for the first day of the fall season and experience these things. Something about autumn leaves falling, the weather beginning to get colder, and the overall eerie feel in the air brings me complete happiness. The anticipation I had built up for years dreaming and planning about being in Salem, the same location Hocus Pocus was based in, finally became a reality for me. I had arrived on the day of the fall equinox and began to explore and immerse myself in this Halloween town by taking a tour of Salem by trolley.
While on the trolley, I passed by many locations that were historically important to Salem because of the Salem Witch Trials that took place there in the seventeenth century. The former home of Judge Jonathan Corwin, the jail that held the accused witches, and the location where the 19 accused witches were hung are just some of the places I got to visit that day. To showcase the history of Salem and to add to the overall eerie feeling, a reenactment of the Witch Trials was performed by actors throughout downtown Salem. Dressed in Puritan-style clothing and involving the crowd, as if we were to decipher the execution of the accused witches ourselves, the performers made it seem as if the audience was in 1692.The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter are my two favorite books, so this reenactment helped me visualize these books even more. These books are the reason why I badly sought to go to Salem and check out the town’s history for myself. Seeing the place where Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter was just a bonus to my trip.
My excitement raised even more as I walked down the cobblestone streets passing by amber trees with fallen golden leaves on the ground. The cobblestone streets are lined with many colonial style homes and buildings, adding to the overall autumn feel. Until this day, I had never seen fall foliage nor experienced the real beauty of fall. As I strolled through Salem, I passed many cemeteries, at least one every three blocks. The most interesting cemetery I encountered was the Salem Witches Memorial. Stone benches were placed in the middle of Salem, one for each accused witch, as a memorial for their families along with people that have a knowledge of the Salem Witch Trial history to visit. What made my experience here even more exciting was my discovery of a note from one of the witch’s tenth great granddaughter.
