2013 Heritage Square Halloween Seance Video

The Heritage Square Museum’s annual Halloween and Mourning Tours provide a good example of how museums and historical/preservation societies exploit the October season to generate interest in historical subject matter – in this case, the customs surrounding death and mourning in Victorian Era Los Angeles. We previously reviewed their 2010 and 2011 incarnations, which showcased 19th Century funeral attire, Halloween decorations, casket-making, and funeral services.

The event does not change much from year to year, but in our new video you will see one or two new sights that were not on view when we shot our Heritage Square Museum Spirit Photography Video three years ago. Most notably, the demonstration of Spirit Photography has been replaced by a recreation of a seance. Fortunately, guides in period costume were available to provide information about Spirit Photography and Memento Mori (photographs of corpses, staged to look as if sleeping, for the benefit of survivors who had no images of the dearly departed taken while they were alive).

This is not a typical Halloween event, but it is a fascinating alternative to the usual haunted house attractions.