Boston’s Granary Burying Ground is not only beautiful, but a good place “to go to get into an autumnal spirit,” says Regina Hansen, a College of General Studies master lecturer in rhetoric. Photo via Unsplash/Raphael Assouline

Arts & Culture

Five Places to Visit (in Addition to Salem) to Get in That True Halloween Spirit

The Boston area’s colonial and gothic-era history provides plenty of spooks and haunts

The Boston area is one of the best places for a true Halloween connoisseur. New England is the oldest settled part of the United States, and for this reason offers tons of history, gothic undertones, and lore.

Regina Hansen, a College of General Studies master lecturer in rhetoric, explains that since humans have lived here for thousands of years—first Indigenous people, followed by Europeans and the Africans they enslaved—“the region is haunted by its history,” she says. And because of its famed autumns and harsh winters (at least until recently), the area “is very in tune with the passage of time, the reality of death. October in New England is both joyous and sorrowful, fun and scary—like the history of Halloween.”

F course the holiday’s beginnings predate New England by thousands of years. It has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain, which was (and still is) celebrated on November 1. Samhain marked the Celtic New Year and was the end of the harvest festival. The night before, “people lit bonfires to welcome in the new year and the end of the harvest, and it was also a time to honor the dead,” explains Hansen, who researches supernatural literature and film. “What happens is that as Christianity takes hold in the countries that are traditionally Celtic, there is an eventual understanding that these people are having this holiday if they want to.”

November 1 became All Saints Day in the Catholic Church, with All Souls Day observed the day after (“for the regular folk,” Hansen says). October 31 became All Hallows Eve, better known as Halloween.

“What I say to people is, it’s everything—it’s a pagan holiday, it’s still in many churches a Christian holiday, it’s a financial holiday, a celebration of the harvest, and an American celebration,” says Hansen, who is teaching the course WRT120 Ghosts and the Undead this semester. “You can’t really put it in a box. It’s a folk holiday, meaning it belongs to the people.” 

Keep reading for suggestions on where to visit for an authentic Halloween experience.

Boston’s lesser-known cemeteries

Bostonians relied on smaller neighborhood burial grounds before the more famous and beautiful Mount Auburn and Forest Hills cemeteries were founded in the first half of the 19th century. Explore downtown Boston’s Granary Burying Ground, King’s Chapel Burying Ground, and Copps Hill Burial Ground, the final resting spot of Revolutionary War–era soldiers and American patriots like John Hancock and Paul Revere. Wander the winding paths of the burial grounds and crouch down to read the fine (some nearly illegible) inscriptions on the slate slabs. “They are aesthetically beautiful and a nice place to go for a walk,” Hansen says, “but they are also good places to go to get into an autumnal spirit.” 

Halloween may be considered the spookiest night of the year, but as Hansen points out, November is the month of the dead in many cultures. “In some ways, you’d be following tradition—including the pagan tradition that’s part of what started Halloween—if you visit these cemeteries in November,” she says.

Boston’s crypts

While most of Boston’s deceased in the city’s early days are found in its burial grounds and cemeteries, a good number are entombed somewhere else. Hundreds of years ago, the deceased were often interred in crypts under churches (a practice common in Europe), representing the importance Anglicans placed on their burial practices, according to an explainer on the King’s Chapel website. “Tombs within a crypt were purchased and owned exclusively by wealthy, white members of the congregation,” the article states. “Being buried in a tomb reflected great social and economic power for a privileged few, as opposed to congregants of color and of lesser means who were buried outside in overcrowded, common burying grounds.”

Today, two of Boston’s oldest churches—King’s Chapel and the Old North Church—offer special tours of their crypts, and knowledgeable guides share the stories of those interred in the bricked, barrel-vaulted tombs. 

Edgar Allan Poe statue

Author Edgar Allan Poe, famous for his stories of mystery and the macabre, is often associated with Halloween. Born on the now-gone Carver Street in Boston, Poe is said to have had a contentious relationship with the city (according to the Boston Globe, he didn’t get along with the city’s literary elite). That slight hiccup hasn’t stopped us from revering the author of The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart, which are perfect reading fodder to get you in the Halloween spirit. Once you’ve done that, visit Poe’s brass statue near the Boston Common: he carries a briefcase overflowing with a raven and a human heart. 

Day of the Dead Exhibition

Mexico’s annual Dia de los Muertos holiday, celebrated November 1, combines Mesoamerican and Christian rituals and honors departed loved ones. Traditionally, families gather at cemeteries to decorate the graves of their loved ones, tell stories, and eat a celebratory meal. They often build altars at home and decorate them as well. 

Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology will mark the holiday starting October 30 and lasting through November 24. Head to the Encounters of the Americas gallery to see an ofrenda (altar) designed and decorated by Peabody staff, Mexican artists, and local students. Featured are pieces from the Alice P. Melvin Collection of Mexican Folk Art, representing the holiday’s Aztec origins, and the Catholic symbols incorporated into the tradition, from skeletons to plush Jesus figures.

Warren Tavern

Built in 1780, this bar and restaurant is considered the oldest tavern in Massachusetts—and one of the oldest in the country. After the British burned Charlestown during the Revolutionary War, the watering hole was built and named for Dr. Joseph Warren, who was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Tradition has it that Paul Revere considered it one of his favorite taverns and George Washington not only stopped here for a drink, but it was the site of his funeral speech. Supposedly, the front room of the tavern has seen a lot of paranormal activity, with reports of a man in a colonial-era wig and hose and a woman in a Victorian dress. 

Enjoy dinner (Guinness beef stew and cajun chicken tortellini are on the menu) and say hi to the ghosts for us.

Salem, Mass.

The largest Halloween celebration in the world happens about 45 minutes north of the Hub, in the historic city of Salem, Mass. It’s coined “Witch City” because it was the site of the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692: 25 people were executed for witchcraft after 2 girls began having fits and were determined to be possessed by the devil. Salem has capitalized on this connection in the years since, and an entire industry has built up around this history. Flocks of visitors (1.3 million last year, with crowds expected to surpass that number this year) come for the monthlong Haunted Happenings festival, with parades, seances, fairs, walking and trolley tours, and more. 

The area has gotten so crowded that Salem city officials have asked people to either take public transportation (the MBTA Commuter Rail leaves from North Station) or better yet, wait until Halloween is over, since the city’s small streets cannot handle the hordes of visitors who descend each year.

Hansen wisely points out that there are 11 other months in the year when a trip to Salem is feasible and likely much more enjoyable. There is the impressive Peabody Essex Museum (which has an exhibition about the Salem Witch Trials), award-winning restaurants, and historic homes (including that of writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The House of the Seven Gables). 

When you do go, Hansen recommends a trip to the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, which pays homage to those killed and is designed to be a place of respect and reflection. The memorial makes it clear that the killing of innocent people was a tragedy. The site was dedicated in 1992 by the late Elie Wiesel (Hon.’74), a Holocaust survivor, Nobel Laureate, and BU’s Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and a College of Arts & Sciences professor emeritus of philosophy and religion.

Etched in the stone are some of the last words of the people who were hanged, and “purposely, I assume, located right outside of the cemetery where at least two of the witch trial judges are buried,” Hansen says.