Haunted Happenings in Salem

About 30 minutes by train from Boston, Salem hosts America's biggest month long Halloween festival every October. Haunted Happenings, which began in 1982, fills the streets with costume parades, ghost tours, haunted houses, and street performers, in the same downtown where the witch trials unfolded. In 1692 and 1693, around 200 people here were accused of witchcraft. Nineteen were hanged, and Giles Corey was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to enter a plea. The festival runs all October, building to Halloween night, when the streets reach capacity in one giant costume party.