At Halloween And Every Day After

I still keep in touch with the activities in New Orleans through my computer, mostly with a New Orleans radio station I listen to from time to time and the web site of the 'Times Picayune', the New Orleans daily newspaper. Today I read about the usual Halloween activities going on this year in New Orleans. Halloween is much bigger in New Orleans than most other places in the world. Everywhere else in the U.S. Halloween is a night of trick or treating for the kids and a smattering of adult activities. But in New Orleans, like nearly everything else, it's different. Halloween there is second only to Mardi Gras for wild and crazy activities in the most haunted city in the U.S. And it's become more of an adult holiday than a kiddy day.

Even when Halloween is over and forgotten, the Halloween edge there is constant. On any night, for example, one can take one of the many haunted tours through the old part of the city, The French Quarter. Every year scores of tourists who are vacationing in the Quarter report hearing or seeing ghosts, apparitions or bizarre activities at night. It is said that the cries for justice, vengeance or sympathy from the dead can almost be heard, crying out eerily. The stories told about restless souls, zombies and ghouls have been :"verified" by quite a few who have witnessed the spirits of the departed walking about at night.

One haunted tour operator, 'Haunted History Tours', claims that 90% of their tour participants capture paranormal activity in their photos. Day time in New Orleans before or after Halloween also has plenty of macabre activities to see. One popular one is to visit the old cemeteries of the city. The tomb of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, for instance, at St. Louis cemetery #1 is the second most visited tomb in the U.S. On occasion the visitor to the cemeteries can find candles and other paraphernalia used and left behind from the bight before by Voodoo worshipers who met and sacrificed chickens or made incantations at tombs said to be inhabited by the possessed. before I left New orleans I visited some of my ancestors tombs at old Lafayette #2 and saw the same at the foot of one of the graves.

Another Halloween-like activity one can do in New Orleans any time of the year is to visit one of the many Voodoo shops operating in the city. Besides learning about the haunted nature of the city one can buy what is needed to cast a few spells and mystical incantations (don't worry, I haven't cast a spell on you yet!) or he or she can have a consultation with a practicing Voodoo priestess. Voodoo is alive and functional in the city.

The list of Halloween activities in the city would fill a book, so I wont mention them. Just remember that if you are ever in New Orleans and in a spooky mood, you need not go far to find some frights.