Modern Wiccans have little in common with the witches of old except that neither group went in much for black garb, pointy hats and bubbling cauldrons of toil and trouble.
As little ghosts, goblins and Sponge Bobs loaded up on candy Thursday during the annual Halloween begging rites, the Allied Witches opened what it called its 992nd annual convention (even though this is only the second time it's been held), discussing everything from magic to their personal problems and the "otherworld."
"At this time of year, when the veil between the worlds is thin, we can expect participants from all places and time," Marilyn Megenity told the Denver Post.
Most of these witches worship trees, moons and stars and don't cast evil spirits. They call themselves Wiccans or pagans and sometimes are called modern-day good witches.
"Witches are people who understand the workings of nature and use the forces of nature to enhance their lives," said Megenity, who is not a Wiccan or a witch herself.
Whether they are good or bad witches, though, they are still not welcome by some.
"The scriptures teach us not to have anything to do with witchcraft," said Allan Van Den Bos, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Brighton. "The devil appears as an angel of light and seeks to deceive the world by appearing to be good."
Johns Hopkins University professor Walter Stephens said most of today's witches are disaffected Christians while those of earlier times probably thought of themselves as good Christians.
"Somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000 (people were tried and killed as witches)," said Stephens, author of "Witchcraft: Sex, Demons and the Crisis of Belief." "Historians are currently tending toward the figure 50,000 in 300 years. We'll never know for sure."
He said 15th century theologians came up with the concept as a way of proving the existence of a good and benevolent God, blaming all the bad stuff like infant mortality and the plague on an evil that could be identified.
No place celebrates Halloween quite like Salem, Mass., linked forever with the infamous witch trials of 1692.
Police in the Witch City planned to close off downtown neighborhoods through Thursday night to accommodate thousands of costumed celebrants out for some scary fun at haunted houses, museums and balls.
The streets bustled with visitors, merchants, dramatic productions, psychic fairs and games as Salem ended its annual three weeks of Haunted Happenings.
But Kansas boasts of creating the holiday as we know it now. The Hiawatha Halloween Frolic celebrated its 88th edition Thursday and the Neewollah -- Halloween spelled backwards -- festival in Independence dates from the end of World War I.
Hell -- Michigan, that is -- didn't quite freeze over for the holiday although the temperature did dip down to a nippy 26 degrees.
In Willowick, Ohio, officials at Willowick Middle School told students to leave the costumes at home. The edict brought a slew of petitions from about 200 eighth graders who were upset the teachers voted against dressing up because the distraction takes too much away from class time.
Principal Tim Code said it was also a security issue.
"When you have 760 students showing up with their faces painted in camouflage, green, blue, red -- whatever -- you don't know who's coming into the building. ... We try very hard to keep strangers out of the building," he said.
Instead, the kids get to watch the faculty play the girls' volleyball team.
Detroit spent a relatively angelic Devil's Night Wednesday, with the days of hundreds of arson fires apparently over. City officials renamed the night before Halloween Angel's Night and called on people to form citizens' patrols to prevent mischief.
"This will mark an historic occasion where we turn this from an anti-arson campaign to a community event that celebrates the spirit of volunteerism," Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said.
(Phil Magers in Dallas and Dave Haskell in Boston contributed to this report)
