Customers, vendors and spiritualist readers were present at the First Spiritualist Church of Onset’s covid-safe Holistic Psychic Fair on Saturday, Nov. 28.

Vendors sold all-natural soaps, orgonite jewelry and other figurines, Christmas decorations and natural stone jewelry from socially distanced areas inside the Hollister Parish House. A variety of readings were also offered by appointment, including tarot card readings, psychic readings, sessions with mediums and more. The fair was scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

The church pastor Rev. Kathleen Hoffman said the organizers’ top priority was figuring out how to hold the fair safely.

“We saw today that we could actually pull it off,” she said, highlighting the covid safety measures which included having one-way traffic inside the church, limiting the number of people allowed inside, requiring masks at all times and frequent cleaning. “So we might even have another one.”

The church minimized the amount of advertising they did for the fair to keep the number of attendees small, Hoffman said. She said before the pandemic, the church would hold a large fair at the Wareham Elks Lodge that would have 300 to 400 attendees.

“People need that connection,” Hoffman said. “We’re at a very hard, difficult time and we need to give people hope and comfort by giving them some insight from their loved ones and maybe a little insight into their future if they’re doing another kind of reading.”

Mike Bassett, who runs Grampy’s Soap Business, was selling his homemade, all-natural soaps at the event. He said he has been selling soaps for about seven years.

“I bought a soap from another vendor, read a book that made no sense, I took a class and this is it,” he joked. “When I read the book … it had all these technical terms that made no sense. But the class put it all together for me.”

He said the church fair was his first fair of the year because of the coronavirus and added that he’d seen a few customers throughout the day.

Another vendor, Sharla Fenwick, was selling natural stone jewelry such as pendants and earrings from her business Earth Treasures.

“They say these stones have energy,” Fenwick said. “Each stone has different energy. People at psychic fairs are usually interested in the natural stones because they want to have that positive energy.” 

Fenwick sold Christmas decorations as well, including gnomes and signs with light-up effects. She said she would also be at the Dec. 5 Christmas fair hosted by St. Margaret’s Church in Buzzards Bay and said more of her products could be viewed online.