February Flashlight Tours to Haunt the Winchester Mystery House

THE MOST MAGICAL MONTH? We'll eekily assume that many people will choose "October" as the answer, thanks to the frightful fact that Halloween is the month's most major holiday. Some people might choose whatever month boasts a Friday the 13th, but that can be a little challenging, for many of us remain vaguely uncertain when the next one will be, or, for that matter, how many Friday the 13ths there are in any given year (2022 has only one, in the un-Friday-the-13th-ish month of May). But once you remove October from the competition, and any of the months boasting a Friday that lands on the 13th day of the month, you just might turn your sights to February, the only month that can have a different number of days than it did the year before. (Even though we understand the concept of a leap year, this calendar-based fact can still exude a mysterious air.)

THE WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE... gets our February-focused obsessions, and the idea that this shortest month, which usually has 28 days but occasionally 29, deserves a spooky spotlight. And that's just what February 2022 will receive, thanks to the flickery-fun return of the San Jose attraction's Flashlight Tours, an event that's become synonymous with October, and Friday the 13th, at Sarah Winchester's storied mansion. The tours will take place on four February Saturdays, happening, as you might expect, after dark. It's a tour that's self-guided, which means that visitors are invited to "... explore the dark halls of the mansion while hearing unnerving stories of the home's haunted history."

ADVANCE TICKETS? They're $49.99 for an adult entry, and $29.99 for a child's admission, and reviewing the attraction's safety policies is a fine idea before your purchase (which you'll definitely want to do before you go). As far as swirling a bit of fall-style atmosphere into the heart of wintertime? We're for it, especially when it adds a bit of enchantment to February, a month that is already quite magical.