history of halloween
Explore the origins of Halloween and how it has evolved since it arrived in the United States in the 1800s.
For years, Eastern State Penitentiary’s “Terror Behind the Walls” was perhaps Philadelphia’s most popular Halloween attraction, drawing thousands to the 19th-century penitentiary that towered like a castle on Fairmont Street.
Actors dressed as sadistic guards and agitated prisoners jumped and scared visitors from their cells. Giant gargoyles looked down on crowds waiting to enter the controversial prison, a practice that British author Charles Dickens once called “cruel and wrong.”
But today, fear does not exist beyond these walls, at least not as it used to. Jump scares still exist during the Halloween season, but they are fictional ghosts like zombies and vampires. The atmosphere is family-friendly and festival-like, with food, beer, live music, and fire pits.
Eastern State is just one of the troubled historical places grappling with the question of how to celebrate Halloween, educate visitors and acknowledge the suffering that actually occurred. Places like Pennhurst Asylum, Waverly Hills Sanatorium, and Lizzie Borden House put tragedy and suffering at the center of their respective histories, depicting what one researcher calls “dark tourism.”
“It’s not a Halloween attraction.”
The COVID-19 pandemic put an end to “terror behind the wall,” and the event now called Halloween Night was launched in 2021 “with a purpose,” Eastern State President and CEO Kelly Sautner said. “There was extensive experience here and the question was asked how to deal with this. It was decided that ‘terrorism behind the wall’ was not appropriate.”
Life in Eastern Province was not easy. Started as a Quaker experiment in justice, Eastern State forced prisoners to undergo rehabilitation through “solitary confinement,” a method that became a model widely imitated by other prisons. Contact between prisoners and guards was kept to a minimum, they were fed through a hole in their cell door, and they were allowed to see light only through their cell’s skylight.
A similar conclusion was reached at Lizzie Borden’s mansion in Fall River, Massachusetts, the scene of two brutal murders in which Borden was tried and acquitted in 1892.
“This is not a Halloween attraction,” said Lance Zahl, owner of the Lizzie Borden House.
“This is a historic house. Real things happened there. There’s real history.” Saar, who founded US Ghost Adventures, said the goal is to teach people about Borden’s life, how Gilded Age families like hers lived, how women were viewed at the time and how the criminal justice system worked. US Ghost Adventures also hosts ghost tours of Gettysburg, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, and the company’s website offers guests the opportunity to “take the most haunted Gettysburg Ghost Tour and learn why the reverberations of pain continue to linger in this historic city.”
The Mutter Museum at the College of Physicians, not far from Eastern State University, also asked the community for help and reconsidered its events and collections as it works to collect human remains dating back to the 18th century. The museum has suspended most public events as it embarks on what it calls the Afterlife Project. The museum will once again host events such as performances by the Philadelphia Orchestra, a fundraising gala, and a medieval-themed dance party.
Is “dark tourism” ethical?
Marius Pascal, a professor of applied and professional ethics at Guilford University, said that while “dark tourism” can pose moral problems, there is nothing inherently wrong with it.
Professor Pascal, whose research focuses on moral psychology and the ethics of fascination with morbidity and death, said a major consideration was whether the fascination was directed toward real or imaginary fear. “It helps people process questions about death and grief. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but we also don’t want to accept it all and say that’s okay too.”
Do attractions promote empathy? Does it feature real life stories? How recently did that tragedy occur? Can visitors learn anything? These are the kinds of questions Pascal has in mind when he talks about “dark tourism” locations.
Mr. Sautner, who served as CEO of Eastern State University for the past two years, has extensive experience in civics education and has worked on restorative justice and criminal justice reform. She said Eastern State University focuses on educating the public not only about the institution and its history, but also about the criminal justice system in the United States and around the world.
“I wanted to remind people that we are dealing with human beings,” she said. These are people who lived in prison, worked there, got sick and died there, got married there, and left prison to rebuild their lives.
Eastern State University has a review committee that works with the team that plans Halloween Night to ensure costumes, performances and props are appropriate and “align with our mission,” Sautner said.
“If it actually happened in our field, we wouldn’t use it for fun,” she said.
Standards continue to evolve, and Eastern State continues to listen to the public, including those impacted by the criminal justice system, as part of that process, she added. “There’s a tension in this place between pain and beauty, glamor and trauma. We don’t know if it’s right, but instead of closing the door, we want to open it wider.”
Saar said part of the Lizzie Borden House’s mission is to address difficult questions. “Life is full of hard facts, and our goal is not to hide history,” he said. Preservationists can restore physical structures, but “the most important thing is to tell the story in a way that is both engaging and true.”
Phaedra Torresan is a national correspondent for USA TODAY. Please contact us at ptrethan@usatoday.com.
