Page 41 - 201210 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - October 2012

10 Most Haunted Places in Canada 10 Most haunted Places 6. Gibraltar Point Lighthouse, Toronto Common to Visit in Canada Islands, Toronto, Ontario Toronto Misconceptions About Island Park, Toronto, Ontario This historic site at Hanlan’s Point on 1. The Old Spaghetti Factory, Toronto’s beautiful Toronto Islands played host Halloween Gastown, Vancouver, British to some foul play in the nineteenth century Columbia when the lighthouse keeper at the time was murdered one evening. Accounts of exactly how If you are looking for eerie eating in the death occurred and who committed the Vancouver, check out the Old Spaghetti Factory crime have varied, but the mystery draws many in the Gastown neighborhood. You may hear intriguing stories about the former lighthouse stories of inexplicable cold drafts and moving keeper’s ghost. table settings, shenanigans attributed to the ghost of a certain train conductor who met his 7. HI Ottawa Jail Hostel, Ottawa, end during a tragic collision on the underground Ontario HI Ottawa Jail Hostel, railway track upon which the restaurant is built. Enjoy the delicious food, but watch that your Ottawa, Ontario cutlery doesn’t float off on you. What better place to find restless souls than in the halls and former cells of the Ottawa 2. Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, Alberta Jail Hostel, which once served as the Carleton The Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff County Gaol and housed the last working A blocked off stairway, said to be gallows in Canada! The hostel regularly haunted by a tragic bride, and a mystery missing celebrates its macabre past with “parties with Samhain is not the Celtic God of Death the ghosts” on special occasions and is featured room, rumored to be locked forever to contain along the Haunted Tour of Ottawa. Nor is Samhain anyone's God of the family of ghosts that inhabits it, give rise to Death. Samhain means "Summer's End" multiple tales of hauntings and eerie events in and was a seasonal festival practised by this historic and beautiful chateau hotel. 8. Old Montreal, Quebec Old Celtic peoples. It was a feast in Montreal (Vieux-Montreal), Montreal, commemoration of the dead, a time for 3. St. Louis Ghost Train, St. Louis, Quebec reflection and remembrance of those who Saskatchewan Saskatchewan, Canada This historic area and popular tourist have departed. However, uninformed anti- If you pass through the village of St. attraction in Montreal provides the setting to Pagan Christians continue to promote Louis, Saskatchewan, late at night, be on the many of Montreal’s most famous ghost stories, Samhain misinformation. lookout for the phantom lights out on the dirt from the ghosts of a prostitute looking for her road where the train tracks used to be. Whether head to the spirits of families lost in a great Hallowe'en is not Satanic these lights are a paranormal phenomenon or hotel fire. If you’re out in Old Montreal looking Many cultures celebrated this time the perfectly natural occurrence, the curious for a quaint boutique or an interesting as a festival of the dead from ancient Egypt appearance of these lights nearly every night restaurant, keep your eyes open also for the to pre-conquest Mexico. None of them has attracted curious onlookers for over thirty wandering reminders of the area’s history. believed in the Christian concept of Satan years. Some say the light is a ghost train, others and subsequently could not have made this the lantern held by the spirit of a conductor who 9. Miramichi, New Brunswick a Satanic celebration. In our culture lost his head on the tracks and searches eternally Miramichi, New Brunswick Hallowe'en is associated with ghosts and to find it. The realists claim that it is simply a From a headless nun walking the French witches because it is traditionally a time refraction of headlights from the highway a few Fort Cove footbridge to the haunted St. when it was believed that the realms of the miles off. Michael’s church, Miramichi is rich with living and the dead were able to phantom folklore, and is also, incidentally, a communicate with each other. This folk 4. Government House, Regina, beautiful wharf city to visit on vacation. tradition originates in our Celtic and Anglo- Saskatchewan Government House, Saxon heritage that pre-dates Christianity. Regina, Saskatchewan 10. St. Francis Xavier University, Christian Propaganda Howie, the affectionately named ghost Mount St. Bernard College, In an ingenious perversion of the of Regina’s Government House, has been Antigonish, Nova Scotia truth Christians have persuaded themselves credited with the opening and shutting of doors This university in Nova Scotia hosts that witches held their sabbats around the without aid of human hands, unaccounted-for tales of mysteriously moving objects, phantom time of the high Christian festivals in evil footsteps on the stairs and the mysterious elevators moving around with no passengers, mockery of their faith. In actual fact the movement of items from one location to inexplicable voices and shadows. [] Christian church strategically planted its another. Some theories hold that “Howie” is arbitrary festivals on Pagan holy days to actually the ghost of the former cook of subvert them. All Saints Day was moved Lieutenant-Governor McNab, who died in the from the 1st of May to the 1st of November house. However, others claim that there are in 834 in order to undermine the Pagan more than one ghost inhabiting this historical celebrations connected with the 31st of mansion which once served as home to October. Lieutenant-Governors of the Northwest Territories. 5. Fort Garry Hotel, Winnipeg, Manitoba Fort Garry Hotel, Winnipeg, Manitoba This castle-like hotel in Winnipeg is rumored to be haunted by a number of ghosts. Even a Canadian Member of Parliament was so convinced of a presence in her room that she fled from her room in the middle of the night.