Hallowe'en Festivals

What makes you shudder? What excites a frisson of fear, an impulse to run from danger? Chances are, you, like most people, feel a thrill of horror at prehistoric perils that literally imbedded themselves in our DNA. Spiders, snakes, predatory animals, the dark, heights and confined spaces are phobias stemming from threats posed over thousands of generations.

For the most part, these primordial dangers present no danger to denizens of modern Western cultures but there they lurk, hidden behind the banality of our everyday lives—psychological toys that we take out every year when the days shorten and darkness again envelopes us.

Halloween, which has become increasingly popular in American culture in recent decades, offers us the perfect opportunity to touch these ancient fears, experiencing a safely sanitized psychic quiver. With its growing attraction for Americans, Halloween has expanded beyond a single day to encompass much of October. Here is a partial list of events guaranteed to elicit that delicious sense of dread:

The 1800s saw the growth of Gothic horror stories. Authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, the Bronte sisters, Nathaniel Hawthorne and others turned their fascination with the morbid, the morose and the macabre, into some of the most horrifying stories ever written. The thrill 19th-century readers felt while discovering these tales will be continued Thursday, October 19th, 6:30-7:30 PM when the Oliver Wolcott Library in Litchfield presents Halloween Hauntings: a Live Theatrical Event with Michele LaRue. She will perform two American tales of suspense from the Victorian age—The Shadows on the Wall and The House That Was Not. A professional actress, LaRue will portray eight characters.

The library is located at 160 South Street in Litchfield; register here.

The Torrington Library will also offer spooky tales for adults Thursday, October 19th, at 6:30PM when storyteller Glenn Harper presents Ghostly Tales—Live Storytelling Event for Adults.

Harper has been performing concerts, workshops and residencies in schools, libraries, museums and other venues for more than twenty years and is well-known for writing and telling original stories as well as folk tales from around the world, ghost stories, fairy tales and nautical tales.
The library is located at 12 Daycoeton Place, Torrington. Click here for more information and reservations.

Torrington is also ready for some Halloween fun. Saturday, October 14th, from 6-10PM, Nightmare on South Main Street will be held at the Armory at 153 South Main. The Armory will be transformed into a spooky-but-fun haunted house for one night only.

Bring the whole family for a trip through the haunted house, followed by a family fun night in the gym. There will be face painting, Halloween crafts and games, music, a costume contest, candy giveaway and more. Click here for more information

The town is in the mood for even more Halloween Hoopla! It will hold its second annual event Friday, October 27th, from 5-8PM at the Torrington Plaza on South Main Street. There will be trick-or-treat at the downtown businesses, pie-eating contests, games, pumpkin contests, Nutmeg Fudge Company’s Haunted Room and—new this year—Main Street will be blocked from the East Main intersection to City Hall. Click here for more information.

The devil is often depicted as a goat or a goat-like man in European iconography but in modern America their darker reputation has been supplanted by kinder, gentler imagery. So those looking for lighter Halloween fare might want to try a Halloween Goat Party with Pumpkins and a Parade on Sunday, October 29th, from 2:30-4:30PM at Got Your Goat Farm, 59 Wheaton Road, Washington Depot. Participants are encouraged to come to the farm wearing costumes to visit with appropriately bedecked goats, to bob for apples, carve a pumpkin and participate in a trick-or-treat candy hunt. Space is limited. For tickets and information, click here.

Up in Berkshire County, Hancock Shaker Village at 1843 West Housatonic Street in Pittsfield will get into the act with a Pumpkin Palooza Workshop Saturday, October 21st, from 10AM-Noon. Pumpkins rule the day in a fun-filled workshop in which four types of pumpkins will be added to your autumn décor.

Registration is $40 for non-members and $36 for HSV members. All materials are provided, and the fee includes admission to the village. Click here to register. Click here to register.

The Berkshire Atheneum, 1 Wendell Avenue in Pittsfield, will hold a Halloween Parade and trick or treat for children aged 6 and younger Tuesday, October 31st, at 10 AM. They should come in costume and stay for a story time and craft. The children must be accompanied by an adult at all times. Call the children’s library at 413-499-9480, extension 5 or click here for more information.

Ventfort Hall, 104 Walker Sreet. in Lenox, a Gilded Age museum, will offer a Ghost Tour with author Robert Oakes Friday, October 31st at 10 PM. Oakes, author of Ghosts of the Berkshires, will lead participants through the rooms and halls of the historic estate sharing tales of its hauntings.

Since 2010 Oakes has led ghost tours at Edith Wharton’s The Mount in Lenox and has represented the museum and its ghosts on Syfy’s Ghost Hunters, Jeff Belanger’s New England Legends series on PBS, and The Apple Seed show on BYUradio.

Admission is $30 and the minimum age to attend is age 12. Reservations are strongly recommended as tickets are limited. Walk-ins are accommodated as space allows. Purchase tickets online or call 413-637-3206.

Edith Wharton’s former home, The Mount, 2 Plunkett Street in Lenox, will also host a ghost tour Tuesday, October 31st, at 6:30 and 8:30 PM. Veteran tour guides lead visitors through the darkened halls, sharing tales of the many eerie encounters that have been reported here for years—creaking floors and slamming doors, fading footsteps down empty halls, spectral shapes crouched in corners or gathered in front of fireplaces long gone cold. The event is almost sold out. Purchase tickets here.

Halloween costumes invite creativity and the Clark Art Institute, 225 South Street in Williamstown encourages visitors to celebrate in costume Saturday, October 28th, 2-4PM. They are encouraged to “celebrate all things spooky, silly, and anything in between” by dressing up as a character from a favorite artwork, a Halloween classic or something entirely new. Those without costumes can design their own masks to wear around the galleries. Visitors in costume receive free admission and a small treat from the museum. Children 21 and younger always visit for free. Click here to learn more.

Are you a fan of cemeteries with all the life stories they represent? Join historian Robert Hoogs October 25th at 4:30PM to walk through Woods Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Monterey. There the Rev. Adonijah Bidwell and two of his wives are buried along with many of the early settlers of Township #1 (modern day Tyringham and Monterey).

Meet at the Bidwell House Museum parking lot at the end of Art School Road. Carpools will be formed as parking is limited on Beartown Mountain Road. Purchase tickets here

New York State has its share of haunted historic sites. The Clermont State Historic Site , Clermont Avenueu in Germantown, once the home to seven generation of socially prominent Livingstons, invites visitors to join ghost hunters as they explore the mansion at Clermont, searching for the spirits of past residents with stories of glory, loss, success and failure. Some of the ghosts may be scary, some may be funny, some may be sad but all their stories will be true.

Tours are offered at 6, 6:30, 7 and 7:30PM on two weekend, October 20th-21st and October 27th-28th. Tickets can be purchased by calling 518-537-4240.