05.21
Whether you are planning a Halloween party, or providing entertainment for your neighborhood trick or treaters, the holiday would not be complete without a haunted house. Providing a scary place with surprises around every corner will attract more kids than a bag of goodies you could hand out. There are a few things to consider when planning your haunted space, and we have listed some here, along with suggestions on how to achieve spooky on a budget!
Choose a theme. This should include consideration of the age of the children who will be touring your haunted space. Younger children may be frightened of some effects that will delight older children. There are three kinds of haunted house attractions to include: the kind that startle, the kind that set a scary atmosphere, and the kind that just gross everyone out. The path should include many sharp turns, and your attractions should be positioned just around the corners for maximum effect.
Fences, porch and large trees in the backyard will supply the base for the walls for your haunted space. Sturdy clothesline can be strung between the house and these elements, with poles for support every six feet. Old sheets, pinned to the clothesline, that reach to the ground will make great corridors. You can purchase these at second hand stores very inexpensively. The sheets can be spray painted in dark, spooky colors and patterns, to add to the atmosphere. Provide lighting by using strings of Halloween lights, usually available in purple and orange, to cast an eerie glow. Black lights and strobe lights will also help set the mood, and still give enough light to safely navigate your haunted maze. Make sure that you include an open area, partway through, both as a feature, and to provide an “escape” for kids who might become too frightened to continue. This open area is the perfect place to build your haunted graveyard. Using plastic headstones and body-sized patches of potting soil, make “fresh” graves. Use plenty of fake spider webs on all your outdoor elements to add to the creepiness.
Scary props can be purchased, rented, or homemade. Stuff clothing to make dead bodies. Stuff a cloth bag to make a head and add a scary mask for personality. Alternate these with the occasional volunteer, dressed as zombies or vampires, who can reach out and startle your visitors. Use Halloween sound effects, or music CD’s to add to the mood. A well-placed fog machine will help create that perfect haunted atmosphere, and will also disguise some of the normal, everyday things that might remind your guests that they are just in your backyard, not the haunted grounds of Dracula’s castle.
Some things to remember:
1. Encourage visitors to stay on the marked path, both for safety and to keep them from pulling down your walls & props.
2. If using dry ice, instead of a fog machine, make sure it is only handled by adults, since exposure to skin can cause injury.
3. Have volunteers positioned along the path who can help children “escape” if they become too frightened to continue.
4. Place old pieces of carpet over extension cords, to prevent tripping.
5. Remember to keep your scary scenes dimly lit to add to the fright.
6. If using jack o’lanterns as decorations or lighting, use battery operated lighting in them, to reduce the chance of a fire hazard.
Children are four times as likely to be injured on Halloween than on any other night of the year. Most concerned parents have developed their own Halloween safety checklists. Based on the recommendations of the National Safety Council, the American Academy of Pediatrics, The Center for Disease Control, and the Los Angeles Fire Department, we propose the following guidelines in preparation for the holiday:
6. Review with your children the principle of “Stop-Drop-Roll”, should their clothes catch on fire.
POPCORN BALLS
CARAMEL POPCORN BALLS
During the dark months of February though September, 1692, hysteria swept through New England, centered around the increasingly unbelievable accusations of witchcraft in Salem Village, Massachusetts. Even Puritan ministers, Cotton Mather, whose writings on witchcraft had helped to fuel the flames, and his father, Increase Mather, became skeptical of the kinds of evidence the Salem court was using to convict accused witches. The testimony of afflicted young people, who claimed to have been visited by the spirits of the accused, and by the ghosts of their victims was referred to as “spectral evidence”. They questioned the credibility of the afflicted girls, the forced confessions of witches, and the court’s reliance on spectral evidence. When heads began to clear a little from the initial hysteria, some people began to question the veracity of the afflicted. The girls, then accused anyone who voiced doubt in their testimony. In all, about 200 people faced accusations of witchcraft. Nineteen men and women were hanged on Gallows Hill that summer. An 81 year old man was pressed to death for not entering a plea in his case. As many as 17 people died in prison, awaiting trial. The nightmare ended when powerful people, including the wife of the governor of Massachusetts, publicly denounced the proceedings, and were then accused of witchcraft themselves. Governor Phipps ordered the Salem court dissolved. 
Salem was not through the dark times yet, however. Because the area was so consumed with the witch hunt, trials and executions, fields lay fallow. Very little harvest was reaped that year, leaving the town facing a long hard winter. Some relief came from the generosity of a wealthy villager who had fled Salem after being accused of witchcraft. Upon hearing of the town’s plight, he sent a shipload of corn to ease their suffering. The feud between the farming community and townspeople that contributed to the unrest had taken its toll, when people finally recognized that many of the accused were rivals or enemies of the powerful Putnam family, whose daughter, Ann, was the most dramatic of the afflicted. In 1697, it was Ann who became the only one of the afflicted girls to ever offer an apology or admit any culpability in the horror that gripped the area. She stood before her church while her apology was read, which stated: “ I desire to be humbled before God. It was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that sad time.” It is believed that Ann may have been as much a victim as those she accused, being manipulated by her parents and elders to achieve their own goals.
Salem, Massachusetts has had over 300 years to recover from the scars of these infamous injustices. How have they fared? Salem became one of the most significant seaports of early American history. It was given the very first to designation by Congress as a National Historic Site. Today, Salem is a thriving community of about 40,000 people, whose major industry is tourism. The city is a mixture of important historic sites, New Age and Wiccan boutiques, and Halloween and witch-themed attractions. In October, they host a month long Halloween festival. Touted as the “Ultimate Halloween Experience”, it will include, this year, a psychic fair, tours of haunted places in the city, featuring the “Witch House” and the House of Seven Gables, a Haunted Happenings Parade, a street fair, and the annual Halloween Ball. The popularity of the festival, and the history of the area, have inspired Salem to boast that they are the “Halloween Capital of the World”.