Amherst marking spooky season with scarecrows

This pumpkin-headed caseworker is helping his client find a gourd job. The display at Nova Scotia Works in Amherst is part of the annual Scarecrow Stroll. This year we have around 45 scarecrows, which is pretty insane. Like, that's an all-time high for us. And there's multiple different businesses and residents, restaurants all around the town of Amherst who take part. Trent says people get very into the competition and the community will have the chance to vote on their favourites. The scarecrows are cropping up as Estherfest gets underway. The event celebrates the paranormal. We have a psychic fair, we have ghost walks, we have ghost hunts. This year we're doing a Victorian seance, which we've never done before. It sold out in like three minutes. It is named after Amherst Esther Cox. She was 18 years old in 1878 when she became the center of a series of paranormal events. You know, things would fly through the air and bedclothes would fly off the bed and dozens of people in town witnessed these events. Esther would swell up to twice her normal size and her hair would stand on end and there were ghosts that stuck pins in her and they wrote on the wall and it's incredible when you look at it. Reindrush says many books have been written about the supernatural series of events. A documentary on the Great Amherst Haunting is helping kick off the festival with more community events right up until the Halloween Spooktacular. Luke Attinger, CBC News, Amherst.