In the spirit of ghouls and ghosts, this year for Halloween I carved my pumpkins into rundown homes and cottages to represent a haunted village. This got me thinking about how people tend to relate to things that are old (historic) with ghosts and hauntings, and how museums and historic sites tend to maximize on the tourist opportunities around the Halloween season.
Let me provide you with some examples.
Black Creek Pioneer Village maximizes on this holiday by having Halloween inspired events at their living history museum located in Toronto:
http://www.trca.on.ca/Website/TRCA/ParksAndCulture/Graphics.nsf/Graphics/bcpv_whatson_pdfs/$file/2008HowlingHootenanny_Web72.pdf
http://allhallowseve.ca/.
The Royal Ontario Museum also had Halloween inspired events this year: http://www.rom.on.ca/news/releases/public.php?mediakey=jhmn8cj6ms.
There are also other tourist attractions, where one can get their fix for things scary and ghoulish all year round. For example, there are Ghost Walks offered within Ontario. Some places include Hamilton, Ancaster, and Niagara-on-the-Lake: http://www.ghostwalks.com/. There are also Haunted Walks offered in Ottawa and Kingston: http://www.hauntedwalk.com/.
While surfing channels on my television, I have often come across episodes of Creepy Canada, a television show that supposedly is devoted to telling the eerie stories of ghost sighting and haunted landmarks found within Canada. http://www.tv.com/creepy-canada/show/33052/summary.html
If you search in Google books “Canadian Ghost Stories” (http://books.google.ca/books?um=1&q=canadian+ghost+stories) an abundance of sources will appear. Many of the stories found within these books are often attached to museums and historic buildings. These books are usually found well stocked in book stores and souvenir shops throughout Canada. And I cannot deny that I own one such book called, "Ontario Ghost Stories" (I purchased it when I went camping many years ago, in order to read it by the campfire).
In the process of telling these scary stories, no matter whether it is in a museum, at a ghost walk, on the television, or in a book, you will come across some aspect of history.
I find all of this very interesting, because it seems that society has a fascination with things that are scary. I rarely meet people who do not enjoy a good horror flick or dressing up for Halloween. However, what I am particularly interested in is why we have a fascination with attaching the scary to the historic and how this concept is used for tourism purposes. Consider how many of us have at one time or another imagined that a historic building is haunted? But let’s be honest, how legitimate can these stories of woman in a white dress appearing in the window of an old building, really be? How historically accurate are these stories? I think that because there is such a wealth of stories out there, that they have become less unique and, in a sense, far less believable.
Despite this, these sorts of attractions, like the ones at Black Creek Pioneer Village, still remain popular and I think that the people who have organized events based around Halloween are simply taking the opportunity to market their sites. They understand what people enjoy and what people are entertained by and in the process they get to tell a bit about history to a public that might be otherwise uninterested. It is a way of motivating the public to learn something about local history and in order to connect with people that are not particularly interested in history can take some creativity. I will admit that I have often wanted to attend some of these events, because I myself find them enticing and unique, which is why I thought this subject might be something interesting to consider.
Side Note: Do you ever wonder if some of those stories are true, not that I am admitting to believing in such things ;). However, if you were to ask me, I might tell you that I once lived in a house that was built on the site of a very old building and it had its share of eerie occurrences. All I am going to say is imagine waking up to all your dresser doors open to their fullest, knowing very well you did not open them that way and neither did anyone else in the house…it makes you wonder…
On that note ;), I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!
1 comment:
I did a great Haunted Walk in Toronto last summer. We could tell the tour guide (yay for amateur historians) was very passionate and it got us all excited too. Haunted walks are fun for their entertainment value, but there's quite a wealth of historical info thrown in. I learned a lot about some of TO's oldest buildings. No ghostly sightings that night though :)
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