A witch mannequin, above, is one of many items on display at the Salem Witch Museum.

AP

SALEM, Mass. In the season when nightmares are all for fun, this historic seaport on Boston’s North Shore hosts the biggest nightmare of them all.

Haunted Happenings is the month-long festival of fright-related events and “supernatural” attractions that each October transforms historic Salem into a three-ring-circus of costumed hucksters, wandering teenage Goths, self-advertised modern-day “witches,” and agog tourists.

Some people love it, others hate it, but either way, in the quarter-century since the Chamber of Commerce inaugurated the fright fest ( www.hauntedhappenings.com), Salem has changed. For this one month of the year, Salem’s claim to fame is not its charming harbor, or the world-class Peabody Essex Museum, or the numerous Federal-style sea captains’ houses that line its historic Common.

During October, Salem becomes the national capital of Halloween.

If you’re a Mardi Gras type, you’ll find plenty to entertain you, just by walking down the Museum Place mall, named for the adjacent Peabody Essex Museum, which is by contrast to the rest of the town is a tomb of peace and quiet in October. The outdoor brick mall is the boiling cauldron at the center of Salem’s Halloween mania, lined with shops with names such as the Broom Closet, Witches’ Tees, Wicked Goodz, Nightmare Factory, and Terror Fantasies. All day long, the several-block area is jammed with people, many in costume, some hawking tours and shows, others selling everything from fright wigs to storm windows to a new novelty: ice cream particles the size of M&Ms that you slurp from a cup. Pizza slices and fried dough are everywhere.

Some highlights:

•The Salem Witch Museum. This is the original witch museum on Salem — not to be confused with others such as the Witch History Museum, the Witch Dungeon Museum, the Witch Village, the Witch House, or the Haunted Witch Village. Inside, visitors sit in a circle in a darkened room while a sonorous recorded voice narrates the real events of “The Witch Hysteria of 1692” in an affecting, informative and entertaining program highlighted by the illumination of life-sized tableaux illustrating key moments in the tale. Even though the room is packed, both children and adults are respectfully silent while the program unfolds. The museum is open daily, with shows as late as midnight this weekend and on Halloween ( www.salemwitchmuseum.com; 978-744-1692).

•The Peabody Essex Museum. Full of interesting exhibits particularly focusing on the maritime history of Salem and the riches the China Trade brought to the city centuries ago, the PEM, as it’s known, is virtually a Halloween-free zone within Salem. Special exhibitions and galleries are dedicated to Asian Export Art of China, Japan and Korea. ( www.pem.org).

•The Colonial-era Salem Common, ringed by stately Federal-style sea captains’ houses. During October, the Common is transformed into a month-long Family Fun Entertainment festival, with games, rides, inflated jump-on toys (10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekends).

•The Old Burying Point cemetery. The real gravestones in this historical cemetery are used as a theatrical backdrop by tour-guides dressed in Halloween costumes. The guides attempt to draw a connection to the witch trials, even though none of the executed “witches” is actually buried there. Next to the cemetery is the affecting Salem Witch Trial Memorial. (See separate story, this page.)

•Salem Harbor and the Salem Maritime National Historic Site on Derby Wharf are fun to visit at any time of year. Shops and restaurants line the wharves, and the view toward the boats and the sea will clear your head of anything at all to do with witches, hangings, and Halloween.

There is plenty to see this time of year in Salem; the problem is getting to see it.

Attracted here from all over the Northeast and beyond, people come to Salem by the busload and by car. On weekends, traffic on the five-mile stretch of Route 114 that connects the town to Route 128 scarcely moves. Once all of those cars finally reach downtown, they all must try to crowd into overwhelmed parking lots and garages, because street parking is mostly reserved for residents.

Insiders say that the best way to get to Salem in October is to bypass its highway exits altogether and head on north to Beverly, where you can catch the commuter rail back to Salem.

kimbrie@projo.com