- NEW ORLEANS -- On a quiet
October night, the back streets of the French Quarter can be an unnerving
place. Never mind the thieves or shady characters, the dark underbelly
of what is often known as America's most haunted city bears the scars of
a brutal history.
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- Cool breezes blow through the walkways of 18th-Century
buildings, the clacking of horse carriages echo off the brick walls and
the white facade of the St. Louis Cathedral rises above it all. Throw in
paranormal activities, voodoo practitioners and creepy graveyards, and
it's enough to send shivers down anyone's spine.
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- Every October, thousands of travelers descend upon the
Crescent City in search of horror and hauntings. Costumed guides lead visitors
through crumbling cemeteries, the drumming of voodoo rituals thump through
the walls of homes and reported sightings of ghosts come from every crack
and crevice in the French Quarter. This is a city that takes no shame in
its macabre attractions and history of horror and death.
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- According to the Historic Voodoo Museum, New Orleans
has the highest concentration of voodoo practitioners outside Haiti. It
estimates that as many as 15 percent of the city's residents participate
in the practice in one form or another. Signs of voodoo, from simple candles
to full-fledged altars, can be found in homes, bars, hotels and shops across
the city. In places such as Reverend Zombie's and Voodoo Authentica, shelves
are stocked with everything from gris-gris bags (custom herbs and oils
for specific purposes) and ju-jus (a blessed object to keep evil and negativity
away) to candles and incense.
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- While there is no credible documentation of the introduction
of voodoo in North America, most scholars agree that it was first imported
to New Orleans with the introduction of the slave trade around 1510. Human
labor -- and its cultures -- was imported from French colonies such as
Guadeloupe, Martinique and Santo Domingo, as well as Africa. Unable to
practice their own rituals out of fear of death, slaves quickly recognized
the similarities between their religions and the Catholicism practiced
in New Orleans. Substituting the names of their African deities with the
names of the saints, they disguised their religions from the general public.
Even today, this multifaceted aspect plays an integral part of New Orleans
voodoo. Most practitioners are also devout Catholics.
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- New Orleans voodoo legend Doctor John (a.k.a. Bayou John)
was a master drummer and free African who had traveled the world. Described
as a large man with a face tattooed with red and blue snakes (the tribal
markings of Senegalese royal family), he was sought by blacks and whites
alike for his herbal medicines and fortune-telling.
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- The most famous voodoo queen, Marie Laveau, used a variety
of talents to establish herself and gained the respect and confidence of
New Orleans elite.
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- While voodoo is similar to Catholicism and a number of
other, more earthly, religions, it has a significant image problem, often
being dismissed as primitive or evil due to portrayal in films with human
sacrifices and bloodletting rituals. Nevertheless, it's the mysterious
image that beckons the curiosity of travelers. And, while local voodoos
show disdain that their beliefs are portrayed as evil, many are quick to
sell tourists voodoo dolls and potions to conjure up revenge.
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- Snakes, skeletons, altars and alcohol still play a large
part in traditional New Orleans voodoo rituals, a few of which are accessible
to intrepid travelers. Along with St. John's Eve (June 23), Halloween night
is one of the most important nights of the year for voodoos, a time to
honor spirits and ancestors.
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- Cemeteries convey haunted history
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- In a place where the dead are honored, it's natural they
are sent to their resting places with a celebration. Since the city was
first established, prominent musicians and politicians have been sent off
to the cemeteries in jazz funerals, joyous occasions in which beers and
trombones outnumber tears and flowers.
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- The roots of these burial rituals are traced back to
Africa. It all ends in the cities of the dead where histories of mystery,
danger, disease and horror lie encased in massive crypts. Behind the rusty
iron gates, the ghost-white tombs lie adorned with crosses and angelic
statues that exude both beauty and mystery.
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- Since the city was founded in 1718, the dead in New Orleans
have never been content staying in the ground. Corpses buried on the banks
of the muddy Mississippi river once washed into city streets, and those
buried within the city often broke from their coffins and rose to the surface
during floods and heavy rains.
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- Even today, heavy flooding can bring up bones in some
of the older cemeteries. It wasn't until Mayor Esteban Miro in the 1780s
adopted Spanish-style wall vaults that New Orleans finally kept its rotting
corpses and skeletons off the streets.
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- There are more than 40 cemeteries in the New Orleans
area, each with its own legends and histories. Nestled in the historic
neighborhood of Treme, St. Louis No. 1 (there are two other St. Louis cemeteries)
was founded in 1789 and is the city's oldest.
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- Many historical figures are buried here including Ernest
Morial, the city's first black mayor, and Laveau. To this day, many still
leave offerings and mark an X on her tomb, evidence of those who have asked
for her wishes.
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- Built in 1872 on what was once the Metairie Race Course,
Metairie Cemetery is the first cemetery to be patterned after the park-like
cemeteries of the East. There are more than 150 acres of mystifying tombs
and statues, many of which take influences from around the world. There's
a tomb designed with Egyptian influences, another modeled after a Greek
temple and even a memorial to the Louisiana division of the Army of Northern
Virginia, which fought in the Civil War.
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- Set as the filming location for a number of movies, including
"Double Jeopardy," "Interview with the Vampire" and
"Dracula 2000," Lafayette No. 1 is another of one of the city's
best-known cemeteries.
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- Built on the Livaudais plantation in 1833 and originally
established as a cemetery for the City of Lafayette, this was the city's
first planned cemetery and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
It is a setting in many Anne Rice novels, and a number of German and Irish
yellow fever victims are buried here.
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- Paranormal powers abound
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- Doing away with the fear of death altogether, there are
some in the city who believe immortality can be achieved through vampirism.
Even before Rice brought her vampires to the Big Easy, gothic types had
sought New Orleans as a dark sanctuary.
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- While those aspects of vampirism -- eternal life, creation
of vampires through biting on the neck -- portrayed in movies is no more
than fiction, Rice's "Interview with the Vampire" efforts have
resulted in dozens of dark landmarks, which can be visited on vampire tours.
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- There is also a group called the Louisiana Area Vampire
Association. (It is said some people who are into vampirism go so far as
to engage in consensual blood drinking.) Les Temps des Vampires, a vampire
ball spawned by Anne Rice fans, draws a wide mix of tourists, fans and
"real" vampires.
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- Even without the children of the night, the French Quarter
can be plenty scary, a Halloween natural. With a history of disease, death,
war and murder, it's no surprise the place is a paranormal playground littered
with horrific tales. One such legend is that of the "Axeman of New
Orleans," a serial killer who was reputed to have butchered 13 people
with an axe between 1911 and 1919. To this day, it is often disputed whether
the killer was found; some believe it was the work of a ghost.
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- Such stories can be found in every corner of the city
from the oak-shaded streets of Uptown to the cobblestone alleys of the
French Quarter. The Beauregard-Keyes House, one of the most famous, was
the former home of Confederate Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard,
who took over as commanding officer of the Southern troops at the battle
of Shiloh. It is said that at 2 a.m. on moonlit nights, he and his troops
materialize in the hallway near the ballroom.
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- The LaLaurie House, considered one of the most haunted
places in the French Quarter, often had trouble keeping residents throughout
the 1800s and 1900s due to reported ghostly activities.
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- It was said Madame LaLaurie, a socialite who lived there
in the 1830s, tortured and abused her slaves, but in 1834 when a fire broke
out at the residence, firefighters discovered one of the most brutal scenes
in the city's history. Slaves had been chained to the wall, tortured, mutilated,
disemboweled and decapitated. Madame LaLaurie, reports say, got away.
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- Ghosts might love the city but they seem to haunt the
countryside in even greater numbers.
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- Few places in the world have received such haunted press
as the Myrtles Plantation in the small town of St. Francisville.
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- Legend says there have been at least 10 suicides and
homicides on the property since it was settled in 1796. Paranormal events
have been documented there, and the house remains on the Smithsonian Institution's
list of most haunted places in the world.
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- Those who make the two-hour trip upriver and opt to spend
the night at the plantation during Halloween might be in for one of the
most haunted experiences of their lives.
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reserved. http://www.freep.com/features/travel/neworleans17e_20041017.htm
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