Once upon a time, Halloween was a one-day event. Then the pumpkins and parties started moving back to the weeks between Columbus Day and Oct. 31.
Now the holiday is morphing into an entire season, at least in the tourism industry, with haunted walks, costume balls and pumpkin-carving events held throughout October.
Salem, Mass., which has the most authentic claim on witchy whoopla of just about any destination in the country, started a Halloween celebration 27 years ago as a one-day event for children. Now the city where witch trials were held in 1692 holds Salem Haunted Happenings from Oct. 2 to Nov. 2 — www.hauntedhappenings.org — and gets 30 percent of its annual tourist visitation in that one month.
Highlights include a costume parade of thousands of children, Oct. 2; a costume ball at the Hawthorne Hotel, Oct. 31; “Festival of the Dead” nighttime parties geared to adults and Harry Potter-themed daytime events for kids. At the House of the Seven Gables mansion and historic site, there are tours and dramatic presentations about the families who inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous novel.
Hotels are embracing the Halloween theme too. The New England Inns and Resorts Association — NewEnglandInnsandResorts.com — started offering “Ghoulish Getaways” in 2004.
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