100 tourists, with 45 being foreign tourists, fans of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” novel spent their Halloween night at Dracula Castle in Tihuta Gorge, while recasting the route covered by the famous book’s hero, Jonathan Harker.
“We have American tourists, who are usually our biggest fans, but also Serbian and Italian visitors. The programme includes a camp fire on traditional beats, the Draculas ball, which will also stage ‘Dracula’s Dream” theatre play. The Ball last till morning, while at midnight the guests are welcomed to Count Dracula’s tomb to meet his spirit,” said Ana-Maria Muscar, the manager of the Dracula Castle hotel.
The American tourists are coming every year in Europe on Halloween to recast Jonathan Harker’s route from London to Dracula’s castle in Bargaului Mountains.
Tourists are making a wide tour through Romania, visiting places related to Dracula’s name. They also spent some time at the Golden Crown Hotel in Bistrita, whose name is also mentioned in Bram Stoker’s book, where lawyer Jonathan Harker slept before heading to Dracula’s castle.
Tourists reached Dracula Castle hotel in Tihuta Gorge on Monday to spend the scariest night of the year on Halloween. The hotel was opened in 1983 and is built in a medieval style.
Dracula’s guests were welcomed with the youth elixir, a special drink prepared just for this night, after the Halloween party kicked off. Tourists, dressed like zombies, vampires and witches, made joint roasted on the spit all by themselves and visited the castle’s secret rooms.
Count Dracula couldn’t miss the show so he showed up after midnight, after leaving his tomb to search for new souls to control until the next celebration.
Halloween (a contraction of All Hallows’ Evening), also known as All Saints’ Eve, is a celebration observed on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day. It begins the three-day observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.
Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (or the related guising), attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories and watching horror films. In many parts of the world, the Christian religious observances of All Hallows’ Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead, remain popular.