The town of Lehighton hosted Spellbinding Saturday last week, a day full of activities inspired by The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

The day began with a local farmers market in the town square with a potion making booth for kids to learn how to make their own potion craft.

People also were able to register themselves under a house to compete against the other houses by completing and participating in activities throughout the day to earn points.

In the afternoon, the organizers of the event held a dueling challenge at the amphitheater.

Kids were able to use spells they had collected throughout the day to deduct points away from their opponent to hopefully win the duel and move onto the next round.

A lot of people were in costumes, and the winner won the elder wand, which is a special wand featured in the Harry Potter books and movies. Later that evening, they also held a costume contest and a “The Mysterious Ticking Noise” Sing Along. Spellbinding Saturday ended with a free movie in the park sponsored by Lehigh Valley Hospital-Carbon.

Participating stores made a themed drink, food, and/or activity for people to do.

A semi-new addition to the downtown Lehighton stores is Within Harmony. It sold some special stones that are similar to what has been seen and/or described in Harry Potter movies or books.

It also brought in the Carbon County Environmental Center to do an educational program about owls. A very popular animal in the Harry Potter universe is owls, so the environmental center combined real life facts about owls but also made connections to the weekends theme. Three live owls were brought in.

Owner of the Within Harmony store, David Miller, really likes these second Saturday events because they are able to bring in business to the downtown stores in Lehighton, which can hopefully boost tourism and the economy of Lehighton as a whole.

He is also passionate about the history in Lehighton and has seen what towns such as Jim Thorpe have done in the last few years by marketing their historic attractions. He wants to help bring some of the energy over into Lehighton in the future.

Jenny’s Sweets and More, a local candy shop, made special Intro to Magic Supply Bags which included a magic wand, glasses, lightning bolt tattoo, and a chocolate frog. It also had a wizard photo booth.

Insurrection Distillery had some special drinks on its menu such as Pumpkin Juice and Alihotsy Draught. Jokers are Wild game cafe had special Harry Potter themed board games for people to play.

Blended Bakery offered Butterbeer Coffee and Harry Potter themed cupcakes. It also had a paint your own wand station, and all the money made from that went to a fundraiser for cancer.

Wine and More on 1st had photo backdrops to choose from, and color changing drinks for purchase. Other stores also participated by letting people earn points for their house when they made a purchase.

The Carbon Chamber calls these themed Saturdays, “Second Saturdays” because they happen on the second Saturday of each month. Past themes include Mary Poppins and Star Wars.

Next month, the theme is Stars and Stripes.