Ghouls’ procession scarier than they bargained on

DOVER-FOXCROFT – A ghastly midnight procession of about 75 people dressed as the Grim Reaper that frightened some Dover-Foxcroft residents was actually a staged Halloween street-theater event.

Those participating in the hour-long procession Friday represented a diverse group, from administrators to ditch diggers, according to Judy MacKinney, a selectman and participant.

Dover-Foxcroft Police Chief Dennis Dyer confirmed Friday that he was notified about the event in advance and was assured it would be peaceful and not cultlike activity.

“It wasn’t held to offend anybody or downgrade anybody; it was a bunch of adults who wanted to have a parade,” MacKinney said.

The Halloween Day of the Dead event was based on morality plays conducted during the 15th and 16th centuries. Those plays used allegorical characters to portray the soul’s struggle to achieve salvation, according to participant Tracy Gayton.

The inspiration for the event also was based on a procession done annually for many years in the village of Verges in Catalonia, Spain, which is now a tourist attraction, Gayton said. On the evening of Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter), men and boys dressed as skeletons march through Verges performing the medieval “dance of death.”

The 21st century production in Dover-Foxcroft, called the “MorTality Play,” used Guerrilla Performance Artists – a loose connotation of the group of people who simply got together to stage the event – to prompt reflection on the brevity of life, Gayton said.

Gayton said he participated for three reasons: he was attracted to the seriousness of the idea; it demonstrated adults can still play no matter what age they are; and it added richness and diversity to the community. There are no plans for a similar event next year, he said.

During the procession, none of the participants would speak about the “MorTality Play,” which was one of the rules of the event, Gayton said. The group was organized by word of mouth and met strictly for the Halloween procession, he said.

Some local residents became alarmed, however, upon seeing three different processions of about 20 people each walking the streets and another smaller group standing on Essex Street Bridge, all wearing black Grim Reaper-style robes, white masks, and holding torches and walking to the sounds of drums. A few people came out of their houses and followed the procession to learn where the groups were going.

“Their appearance [is] scaring people,” Mike Curtis, a dispatcher at the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department, said shortly after midnight. He said he received about 15 calls from people reporting the gathering.

One group was led by a figure dressed as the Grim Reaper carrying a scythe with the inscription “Nemini Parco,” a Latin phrase meaning “no one is spared.” Another participant, who carried an hourglass representing the slipping sands of time, led the second group, and a third group was led by an individual who carried a bowl of ashes.

Carrying two black flags with the inscriptions: “Vita Brevis,” Latin for “life is short” and “Nemini Parco,” the three groups merged to form a procession down the abandoned railway bed in town to the Essex Street bridge, where they joined the smaller group.

“It was pretty peaceful,” said Dover-Foxcroft police Officer Charlie Edgerly.