Phantoms By Firelight

Phantoms By Firelight at Old Sturbridge Village

Jake, Danielle, Pahl, and Barbara at the staged photo area

Now I can tell you we've attended Old Sturbridge Villages Christmas By Candlelight program, but it was news to me up until last year that they also had a spooky October program called Phantoms By Firelight. Phantoms By Firelight is a special nighttime evening program held for three weekends in October after the daily hours of the museum had passed. I had wanted to go last year, but I had too many other events already planned, so I patiently waited an entire year for tickets to become available again. When they did, I reached out to Barbara and Jake to check their schedule and see if they could also go. They've been Members of the Museum for something like 10 + years, so all the staff gets excited to see them and they bought our tickets together so we could all just pay the member price (which saves $6 per ticket mind you)!  

The event description gripped me, "Wander fire-lit paths and step inside historic buildings, gather by the crackling bonfire for eerie-tales, and revel in the dazzling spectacle of fire dancers, soaring acrobats, and haunting melodies." Each building also had something death related--the cabinet maker was assembling coffins, the blacksmith was forging tools for a burial, and over near the farm, there was a staged 1830's wake. Also any Victorian era event of this nature would me remiss without human hair intricately woven into flowers as memories of the dearly departed or a jar of teeth, with a contest to guess how many teeth were in the jar. There were also unusual remedies for curing the body's humors and diseases, information about the origins of jack-o-lanterns, and other Halloween traditions. 

Despite all the entertainment included with Circus Vampyre performances and interactions with the staff in the buildings, there was also a Scavenger Hunt that involved clues and candy! We had to unravel riddles and collect stamps at multiple locations to piece together a mystery of a resident's untimely death to receive a delightful bag of treats as a reward. 

The staging area of the Cyrkus Vampyr

Pahl and Danielle in front of the dying corn; Photo credit to Barbara

Now it's impossible for us to just not dress up for any occasion, but of course we wanted to dress up for Phantoms by Firelight. If you were a historical costumer like the people that work at Old Sturbridge Village, you would know that neither of our outfits were actually period or accurately historically based, but to the average attendee wearing sweats and sneakers, we looked like the staff. Now to be fair to them, the paths of the museum were truly fire-lit and once it was dark it was very hard to see anyone, except by their shadow outline. 

Pahl's outfit is brought to you mostly by the Historical Emporium. He is wearing an ivory blouse under a double breasted Regency waist coat (my Christmas gift to him in 2023), pinstripe high waisted wool pants stuffed inside black leather riding boots, a black wool tail coat, a primarily green with pops of coral and light blue paisley ascot, and a costume top hat with a large burgundy  hat band. 

I am wearing a black bat winged collar polyester blouse and a high-waisted green and navy blue pinstripe Victorian inspired skirt from Miss Point. (This skirt and its matching accessories were my 2023 Christmas gift from Pahl). Over the blouse I am wearing a black velvet caplet and a wool hat with a big pinstripe bow on it that matches the material on my skirt. I brought my "Book of Charms and Spells" handbag for the occasion and to match all the black in my coordinate. Lastly, I am wearing knee high black boots, mostly for comfort. Old Sturbridge Village is a lot of walking, and I wanted to be especially sturdy on those fire-lit paths. 

Pahl and Danielle Shadow projected on a barn

As we were walking around and collecting stamps and solving riddles (this took half the time mind you and it would have taken all the time if Barbara and Jake were not with us as they know all the names of the buildings and alternative ways to get to them), I noticed this red light on the side of the barn. I asked Pahl to orient himself so that it looked kind of like where his heart might be to compose in image of his love for me, even in shadow, or something like that. I like how you can see the outlines of our outfits quite distinctly such as our hats, his tailcoat, and the many layers of ruffles in my skirt. 

Barbara in shadow to the right entering the bridge

Did I mention it was dark? On the bridge over the water they had a fog machine going to add to the atmosphere. There were 6 portraits of actual people who had lived at one time but had met untimely deaths. One of these poor souls was the answer to the riddle, but we had to solve other riddles to make sure we had selected the correct one. You could read the information once you were on the bridge, but to approach it was intimidating for sure. 

Barbara and Danielle; Photo Credit to Jake

How could you tell it was Barbara's silhouette above if I didn't even show you what she was wearing during the day??? She had a lovely purple and orange tartan dress accented with a long brown cardigan, brown leather Renaissance Faire boots, a bright orange infinity scarf, and a suede brown hat.  Barbara and I separated from the gents at one point to check out a fire show happening beyond the bridge while they saved us seats for the finale performance of the acrobat and fire troupe. 

The fire shows were interesting, but short. They also used modern music that I recognized to perform with, but I was kind surprised they didn't have a live person hauntingly playing a fiddle or something like that. The finale started late, and was a brief beautiful spectacle of a fire breathing performance, slight of hand from the magician, and a beautiful acrobat spinning on a hoop in the air. I am not entirely sure the Cyrkus Vampyr added to the already amazing programing that the museum had to honor death and what those traditions were like during the 1830's. I kinda wish I wasn't so treat motivated for the scavenger hunt and instead had spent a little time sitting around a bonfire and listening to some of the eerie stories.  

I think Old Sturbridge Village will be doing something like Phantoms by Firelight again, but I do know that this particular year was the final year for Cyrkus Vampyr, so who knows what kind of additional programming they will have next year!  On the way out, we stopped at the gift shop near the entrance of the museum so I could grab a second hot tea and use the restroom, and while everyone else was waiting for me, several people complimented Pahl on his "performance" assuming that he was one of the staff. 

Now I have been to the museum three times in recent years, once in December and twice in October. I have recently received a pair of tickets for regular day admission, so I will make a plan to attend in the spring of next year to see what that is like!  And who knows what I'll wear, but I probably won't look like the staff. Pahl on the other hand...now that's a different story!