Best spots for Halloween
To really get into the spirit of Halloween, you need to go somewhere that does it justice, writes Lorna Thornber.
There’s only one night a year when it’s okay to look like a fright, channel your inner demon and party like the possessed. So you might as well go all out.
Sure, you can indulge in dressed-up debauchery anywhere, but to really get into the spirit of Halloween you need to go somewhere it’s considered a hallowed occasion.
Either that, or somewhere especially spooky.
Whether you’re looking to get back to the festival’s Celtic roots, embrace the supernatural or simply party like it’s October 31, there’s somewhere to suit.
Derry, Northern Ireland
You know the Irish take an event seriously when they refuse to serve pints to those who don’t participate. But in the town of Derry, that’s exactly what happens on Halloween.
Named as the top Halloween destination in the world in a USA
Today readers’ poll last year, you can rest assured that Derry will send a tingle down your spine.
Halloween is believed by many to have its roots in the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain, celebrated by Derry’s ancestors some 2000 years ago. Marking the beginning of the dark days of winter and the Pagan New Year, Samhain was thought to be a time of transition when the boundaries between this world and the next blurred, allowing spirits to cross over.
Bonfires were lit to ward off evil, and ugly masks were worn to confuse the spirits and stop them recognising those they may want to seek revenge on.
Last year, about 80,000 attended the town’s four-day Halloween festival, which combines ancient and modern traditions. The carnival-like parade and ‘‘spooktacular fireworks’’ display are highlights, as is the ‘‘haunted harvest market’’, where you can enjoy scarily good food and ’’bewitched brews’’ while taking in the live entertainment.
Just remember your costume so you won’t be denied a pint.
Salem, Massachussetts, US
Salem is famous (or infamous) for one thing: witches.
The witch trials of 1692, when 19 people were executed for witchcraft, established the thenvillage’s reputation as a centre for toil and trouble of the spell-casting female kind.
Most of the Salem ‘‘witches’’ were convicted on the spurious evidence of young village girls who claimed to have been bewitched, creating a wave of hysteria.
Hysteria of a celebratory rather than sinister kind can still be felt in the city’s streets during October, when it throws a monthlong Halloween party known as the Festival of the Dead. Events include psychic readings, seances, a ‘‘mourning tea’’ and a witches’ gathering but the highlight is the Official Salem Witches’ Halloween Ball.
Hosted by modern-day witches and their supporters, the ball aims to recreate ‘‘the days of old when fires burned on every hilltop and witches gathered to feast, rejoice and cast spells for the New Year’’. Goth features heavily on the music playlist, but no one would call the ball a downer.
This year’s theme is ‘‘Signs of the Zodiac’’ and guests will be treated to live performances by the likes of the Dragon Ritual Drummers, old-school rituals led by Witchdoctor Uru and a ‘‘magic circle’’ to honour the dead.
Even if you’re a Gothic Cinderella and can’t go to the ball, it’s impossible to go far in Salem without bumping into a witch of some description.
Essex Street alone is lined with shops run by modern witches where you can buy books on magic and spell ingredients and get readings via various mediums.
There’s also the Salem Witch, Witch Dungeon and Witch History museums, eerie Witch House once home to one of the judges in the trials - ‘‘haunted houses’’ such as Witch Mansion and even a statue of Samantha from TV show
Bewitched, now filming its seventh season in the city.
Mexico
Mexico’s El Dia de Los Muertos
(Day of the Dead) is an antidote to the superficial sugar rush that Halloween has become in some parts. People don’t just dress up as the dead (or undead), they honour them. Originating from the Aztecs, who believed that death actually marked a new phase of life, the festival sees families get together to celebrate the lives of lost loved ones.
The souls of the dead are believed to come back to Earth for the days of the festival - October 31 to November 2 – and altars are set up in homes, at graveyards and on the streets to guide them. On November 1, which is dedicated to deceased children, the altars are decorated with white flowers to symbolise purity and sweet tamales, hot chocolate, fruit, lollies and toys to tempt their souls back to this world. The following day, when departed adults are remembered, the altars are covered with items catering to more grown-up tastes (beer, tequila and cigarettes are not uncommon).
Calaveras - short poems mocking deceased friends’ more peculiar traits - are found on many altars, while marigolds, the floral symbol of the festival, and sugar skulls, a reminder that death is a sweet continuation of the life cycle, are everywhere.
While sombre in some ways, the festival is characteristically high-spirited. In some places, such as Oaxaca, it erupts into a fullblown party, with plastic cups of mezcal handed out to those who gather to watch the parades.
Mexico City held its first Day of the Dead parade, featuring more than 1000 performers, last year. Inspired by the James Bond film
Spectre, which saw 007 chase a villain through a Day of the Dead celebration, it attracted thousands. This year, organisers are hoping the parade will draw visitors back to the city in the wake of the deadly quake in September.
Transylvania, Romania
The land that inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula does not disappoint in the spooky stakes.
With its moated Gothic castles surrounded by the misty Carpathian mountains, wellpreserved medieval towns and dark, dense forests of howling wolves, it’s as timeless as the vampires the name Transylvania evokes. Bran Castle, upon which Count Dracula’s lair was based, is a must-visit.
You can tour the 14th-century fortress’ lamp-lit corridors and lofty turrets at any time, but on Halloween it hosts a party complete with red wine and black vodka cocktails and (live?) entertainment.
Dracula himself was loosely based on 15th century nobleman Vlad Dracula - better known as Vlad the Impaler - who has been said to have impaled tens of thousands of his enemies on stakes in the castle grounds, although evidence suggests he may never have set foot in the place.
But don’t let the truth stand in the way of exploring a castle which, perched high on a ridge and shadowing the town below, is undeniably vampire-esque.
Peles and Hunedoara castles are just as atmospheric and their factual histories are arguably even stranger than Stoker’s fiction. Take time to explore the hamlets and villages where, with their horse-drawn carts and shepherds tending to their flocks, time seems to have stood still for centuries.
You mightn’t get much sleep if you’re easily spooked though. In the villages near Bran, it was long believed that evil spirits known as
steregoi took human form during the day and left their bodies to torment mere mortals at night.
❚ Our cover this week features a child dressed for Dı´a de los Muertos in Oaxaca, Mexico. Photo: iStock.