Luigi board? Have you played the Luigi board? Are Luigi boards dangerouse if you ask something about ghost?

Salem, Massachusetts is now home to the world’s largest Ouija board.

The 9,000 pound, 3,100 square foot spirit board now in Salem Common was the idea of one Rick Schreck, who is vice president of the Talking Board Historical Society and a collector who owns hundreds of (mostly regular size) boards.

The boards themselves are a century and change old, though the idea of trying to reach the spirit world is about as old as people are.

Ouija boards are rooted in the 19th century practice of Spiritualism, which emphasized communicating with the “other side.”

There were lots of ways to do this, like hiring a medium, or listening for knocking sounds, or setting up any number of table-based gizmos that could open the metaphysical phone lines.

But by the 1880s the spirit board, talking board, or Ouija board became the most popular, because it was the most portable and therefore practical.

They’ve been circulating ever since, and occasionally even re-designed, like the all-pink one for tween girls in 2008.

The fascination continues, at least in some circles. As the old slogan for the boards goes, “It’s only a game – isn’t it?”

We can’t finish a show about Ouija boards without recommending to you a YouTube video from some years back in which a guy reads all the different ways people on the website Yahoo Answers mispronounced the name of the boards. Oiji board? Weggy board? Luigi board? Somehow, even… quiche board?

Close enough.

World’s Largest Ouija Board Unveiled in Salem, Ma. (Geek.com)

History of the Talking Board (Museum of Talking Boards)

Curse of the Weggy Board (YouTube)

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Photo by Dex via Flickr/Creative Commons