Even though Amherst, Nova Scotia, sits close to the New Brunswick border, it also borders on something far more supernatural: the Esther Cox mystery.
The community has learned to embrace that history of poltergeist lore, almost to the point that Esther Fest has become Canada’s answer to Salem’s witchcraft and folklore festival.
“The Great Amherst Mystery is so well known in paranormal literature. The British writer Colin Wilson said it’s perhaps the best-documented poltergeist case of all time,” Charlie Rhindress, the festival’s lead organizer, said during a late-September phone conversation. “If we were in the States, there would’ve been a movie about this by now. There’d have been a TV show. There’d be a museum. There’d be a theme park.”
Rhindress is joking, of course, about a Six Flags park dedicated to an 18-year-old who went through a traumatic experience that may or may not have followed an assault by her former beau, Bob MacNeil.
The Amherst Mystery centres on the strange events Esther and her family experienced in the fall of 1878. Loud rapping started in earnest one night and grew more frequent. Objects were thrown. Esther suffered seizures, fevers and chills, and her body swelled. Then the words “Esther Cox, you are mine to kill” appeared on the wall above her bed. The events drew Walter Hubbell, who came to town from the United States and later wrote about her ordeal.
The idea for Esther Fest took shape in 2017. It ran quietly for a few years, survived a COVID-related hiatus and, in 2023, Rhindress took over and grew it into a full street festival.
This year there will be a screening of Fibe TV1’s new docuseries The Great Amherst Haunting, a witch dance, bookbinding classes, a Victorian séance with Jodi Russell of Paranormal Phenomena Research and Investigation (PPRI), a psychic reading with medium Laura Warren, and ghost hunts with local investigators Parasight at the Cumberland County Museum, the Scotsburn building and Dayle’s Grand Market.
There is even an open-mic night for people who want to share brushes with forerunners or residual hauntings.
“I have people submit their stories, or they can come up and grab the mic and tell their stories,” Rhindress said. “Every year it’s more ghost stories, but we start with the witch dance.”
That dance is put on by the Chignecto Isthmus Witches of Wind and Water, who also offer a free dance lesson at Victoria Square. The group re-enacts the Witch Dance that began in Germany in 2016, when the Wolfshäger Hexenbrut staged a flash mob on Walpurgis Night.
The Amherst troupe is a collection of witches from Eastern Passage, Amherst and Tantramar. They are part of a community celebration of local lore — stories Rhindress believes need to be shared. He grew up on a steady diet of American pop culture and felt something was missing. He started a theatre company at 22 and, in 1991, wrote the play Guilty! The Story of the Great Amherst Mystery, based on Hubbell’s book.
“There was all this Maritime mythology out there, but I felt like we still didn’t really celebrate our own stories,” he said. “I just love telling people stories that make them proud of where they’re from and realize that we have a history, and we have tons of interesting people.”
He has worked with PPRI to expand the program, with five new events on tap this season. He also hopes people will embrace their inner Helen Creighton, the author of Bluenose Ghosts.
“I want people to have fun. Even though we’re dealing with the paranormal, I don’t really dive into the dark side of it all,” Rhindress said. “We’re not doing possession or exorcisms or demonic stuff.
“If people can come out, restore their faith in that sort of thing, or feel connected with someone from their past, I think that’s great.”
Esther Fest runs October 21 to 31 in Amherst.
Photo courtesy Charlie Rhindress