Stroll down Museum Place Mall this month, and you may feel you've entered another world. It's all part of Salem's annual Halloween mania.

Capitalizing on its history of 17th-century witch persecution, this city 16 miles north of Boston turns itself into a celebration of the frightful and the occult during its monthlong Haunted Happenings.

It's all in fun, of course, but underlying Salem's present-day Halloween antics is its very real hysterical frenzy of 1692, when 20 innocent people accused of witchcraft were put to death.

That horrific period is recounted most tellingly in the Salem Witch Museum, where the accusations and witch trials are re-created through narration and a series of illuminated tableaux.

There are other museums trading on witchery here - among them the Witch History Museum, the Witch Dungeon Museum, the Salem Wax Museum, and the Salem Witch Village. But the Witch Museum, housed in a former church, is one that visitors shouldn't miss.

Haunted Happenings celebrates Halloween in many ways, including a Bizarre Bazaar, Retro Zombie Ball, and Vampires' Masquerade Ball. On Halloween night the Hawthorne Hotel hosts a huge party, the Carn-Evil Creep Show Ball, with food, entertainment and a costume contest ($90 per person).

On Nov. 1, the Day of the Dead, another massive party - the Salem Witches' Halloween Ball - also takes place at the Hawthorne and on the adjacent grassy Common ($150 per person). The Common, fittingly, is where some scenes of the popular Hocus Pocus movie about long-dead witches were filmed.

And every day this month, you can visit the Annual Psychic and Witchcraft Expo at the Museum Place Mall to make contact with the spirit world - and perhaps chat with a real witch.

Yes, Salem has real witches - more than 3,000 of them, who practice Wicca. They detest both the stereotype of wickedness as presented in the Wizard of Oz and the nose-twitching antics of Samantha in television's Bewitched.

Halloween trickery and witchery, however, aren't the only reason to visit Salem. The city was one of America's wealthiest and most important seaports in colonial days, and its surviving wharves and port facilities are open to the public as a National Historic Site. The National Park Service Visitor Center displays additional exhibits across from the Museum Place Mall.

Another popular site is the House of the Seven Gables, which inspired the famous novel of the same name by Salem native Nathaniel Hawthorne. This month, two Haunted Happenings events - Legacy of the Hanging Judge and Spirits of the Gables - take place here on weekends.

One of the country's largest art museums is on the Museum Place Mall. The Peabody Essex Museum showcases Asian, African, maritime, oceanic and American Indian art. A major attraction is a Qing dynasty house brought from China and reassembled in the museum. All told, the museum has more than 50 galleries and 844,000 works of art.

Thousands of visitors stream into Salem to take part in its spooky events, so be prepared for traffic tie-ups. Parking is limited, so visitors are advised to leave their cars in suburban towns such as Beverly or Newburyport and take the commuter train into town. Train service also is available from Boston.

Another popular route is the high-speed ferry that runs between Boston and Salem in 45 minutes.

Once in Salem, many attractions are within walking distance around the Museum Place Mall. Take the Salem Trolley for a narrated one-hour tour - you can get on and off at all major stops, including the ferry docks.

A Frightful Time

For more information, check:

Destination Salem
1-877-725-3662
www.salem.org

Festival of the Dead
www.festivalofthedead.com

North of Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau
1-800-742-5306
www.northofboston.org