HEADSTONES, HALOS AND HAUNTINGS: HALLOWEEN IN MASSACHUSETTS

10-29-2008

 

The Bay State Offers Some of the Country’s Oldest Cemeteries, Churches and Ghost Stories

 

 

October XX, 2008 (Massachusetts) – As the fall harvest season carries on in full swing and the leaves continue to fall, Massachusetts is preparing to celebrate the Halloween season. Across the state, some of the country’s oldest churches and graveyards attract tourists interested in the history of our earliest settlers – where they worshipped, celebrated their lives, and were later interred.  Their homes have been transformed into haunted hotels and B&Bs, where you might get the chance to meet some of the folks whose resting places you visited that day. 

 

Following is a list of churches, cemeteries and hotels to visit across the state – where visitors may decide for themselves if there is such a thing as ghosts! For even more ideas on events and happenings taking place throughout this season, log on to massvacation.com for a complete list of things to do.

 

HALOS

 

Old Shop Meeting House

In 1681, Hingham's 140 families raised the money to construct the Old Ship Meeting House. Still in active use, it is recognized as the oldest wooden church structure and the oldest church building in continuous use in America.

Hingham

www.oldshipchurch.org/history.html

 

The First Church in Salem

Gathered by the English Puritan settlers of Massachusetts Bay Colony in August of 1629, The First Church in Salem is one of the oldest churches organized in North America and boasts prominent parishioners such as Nathanial Hawthorne.

Salem

www.firstchurchinsalem.org/history.htm

 

The Old North Church

The enduring fame of the Old North began on the evening of April 18, 1775, when the church sexton, Robert Newman, climbed the steeple and held high two lanterns as a signal from Paul Revere that the British were marching to Lexington and Concord by sea and not by land. This fateful event ignited the American Revolution.

Boston

www.oldnorth.com

 

 

HEADSTONES

 

Granary Burying Ground

The remains of thousands of Boston citizens and notables lie within the walls of the Granary Burying Ground. Along with Massachusetts governors, mayors and clergymen, visitors will find the graves of three signers of the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Robert Treat Paine; Peter Faneuil, benefactor of the famed downtown Boston landmark; patriot and craftsman Paul Revere; James Otis, Revolutionary orator and lawyer; and five victims of the Boston Massacre.

Boston

http://www.cityofboston.gov/parks/HBGI/hbginfo.asp?ID=16

 

Burial Hill

Witness the first form of folk-art carvings on tombstones and what the carvings mean, as well as lovely epitaphs at Plymouth’s oldest cemetery. Learn about early Burial customs, Puritan traditions, and why there was a use of burial tombs.

Plymouth

www.plymouthtours.net/tours/tourDetail.cfm?tour_id=5804

 

North Weymouth Cemetery

The North Weymouth Cemetery may well be the oldest cemetery still in use in the United States, with the first recorded burial in 1636 of Zachariah Bicknell. This historic cemetery contains many famous and infamous people, including the parents of Abigail Adams, who was the wife of John Adams, our second president.

Weymouth

http://nwcemetery.googlepages.com/

 

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

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