WELCOME TO WITCHVILLE

Copyright by Victoria Elizabeth 2004. All rights reserved.

WELCOME TO WITCHVILLE
(Home of Scream Cuisine & Other Stuff)

Living in Victoria, BC (Canada) has a few perks.

Second to Salem, Massachusetts (the world capital of witchcraft), Victoria, BC is Canada's "most haunted house city".

This "California-North", left-coast, cosy community with the unique distinction of being dubbed Canada's "garden city", it also has something else strange going for it.

According to the most recent Canadian census,it seems that Victoria has the largest per-capita witch population in the country. In fact, more than 1,000 folks filled out a form declaring themselves truly "out-of-broomstick the-closet"! However, more optimistic estimates, by the local pagan and witch community, put this figure closer to 5,000!

Even though Statistics Canada has stated that paganism is the fastest- growing religion in the country, Victoria has earned the novel title of being one of the few places in the country where witches can legally marry, wear witch attire in public, (and die) in grace.

So what makes Victoria such a "happening Halloween place" all-year round?

Some have said, it is Victoria's strategic location on the San Andreas fault line. (The "energy of the place" makes it a great spot for those who like to feel the earth tremble beneath their web-feet -- it also rains here).

Other's say it has to do with the ocean (and perhaps far too many seagulls leaving their telltale signs behind to guide the ghosts around at all hours of day and night).

But most scientists agree, it probably has something to do with the very strange sort of people who live here (namely a high proportion of hot-air politicians, and alternative lifestylers who enjoy wearing point-black hats, hob-nailed hiking boots, and riding recycled broomsticks to work in Beacon Hill Park (a place where pentagrams can be worn openly without anyone batting an eye).

But hold on now -- there