My first Halloween costume as a young child consisted of a green plastic witch face mask with attached black pointy hat.
The costume included a black shapeless long skirt. My younger brother’s costume was a one-piece skeleton outfit depicting white bones on a black background. My mother thought we looked cute. We wore those Halloween costumes for at least three years.
I am not a fan of Halloween. It’s just not my holiday. But I have always been interested in the occult, vampires, the spirit world, paranormal investigations and witches.
As a seventh-grader, I rushed home from school to watch “Dark Shadows,” a popular afternoon TV show featuring a vampire named Barnabas Collins and a beautiful witch named Angelique. As a teen, I asked for a deck of tarot cards for my birthday. After reading through all of the descriptions, I was too afraid to read my own cards!
Since 2020, the demand for psychic readings has increased in the U.S. as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and economic uncertainty. Now psychics offer digital platforms. The online psychic reading market continues to grow with the convenience and 24-hour availability of virtual personal readings via computer and cellphone. In 2025, people are still asking for psychic predictions about jobs, health and love life.
Salem, Massachusetts, is known as the “most haunted city in America.” People flock to Salem, especially in October, with its history of the famous witch trials and paranormal activity. The mass hysteria that culminated in the Salem witch trials of 1692 pitted neighbor against neighbor with accusations of witchcraft. Those cold and hungry residents looked for reasons to explain the death of cattle, sickness of loved ones, crop failure and other negative events in their lives. Accusing other residents of witchcraft (especially older women) became a likely explanation for these unfortunate events.
Walking tours and ghost tours are available in today’s Salem, where tourists can visit the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, the Howard Street Cemetery, the Old Burying Point Cemetery, and the historic home where Judge Jonathan Corwin once lived.
New York and Connecticut have had their share of witch trials, vampire activity and haunted houses, too! During the 17th – 19th centuries, at least 30 documented cases of trials, hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft took place in New York.
In 1669, Katherine Harrison was accused of witchcraft in Wethersfield, Conn., and convicted by a Hartford jury in 1670. Katherine was banished from Connecticut and moved to Westchester County, NY, to live with her daughter. Westchester neighbors complained about her but she was allowed to stay and sued her neighbors for defamation in 1672.
Winifred King Benham and her daughter, Winifred, were tried for witchcraft three times in Wallingford, Conn., in the 1690s. They were found innocent and were banished from Connecticut. They moved to Staten Island.
In the late 1700s, a woman in South Salem named Granny Brown was considered by neighbors to be a witch. Rumors of her magical powers causing issues with local livestock gave Granny Brown the reputation as the only recognized witch in Lewisboro.
Modern day witches can participate in the annual Sleepy Hollow Stand Up Paddleboard Witches Festival each October. Participants dress up in black pointy hats and witch attire to paddleboard on the Hudson River in this celebratory event. If you missed it, there’s always next year!
Tarot card reading, mixing potions or casting spells - you never know what your neighbors are doing behind closed doors!
Kim Kovach received lots of positive responses to her 300th newspaper column about pigeons. Thank you, readers! Visit Kim at www.kimkovachwrites.com
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