Halloween wasn’t always scary. An effort was made during the Victorian era to turn the holiday into more of a family affair. Some hostesses went a step further and many of
the tricks and treats featured at Victorian Halloween parties were designed
with romance in mind
In the Old West Halloween dances were
held in schoolhouses, barns or churches. Guests were required to jump
over a broom upon arrival to assure future happiness. Masquerade balls
were popular, too, but were mostly held in the east.
Apples played an important part in
those early Halloween rituals but so did tin soldiers. An article in the El
Paso Daily paper in 1899 described the ritual of melting tin soldiers.
A young woman would drip melted tin from a spoon into cold water. The tin would
harden in all manner of shapes, thus foretelling a maiden’s future. If,
for example, the tin looked like a shoe, she would marry a shoemaker. A
ship meant her future husband would be a sailor and a hammer foretold a dashing
(handsome?) carpenter in her future.
Bobbing for apples was a must, but
with an interesting twist. The apples each contained the name of a male
guest. A woman lucky enough to sink her teeth into a pippin would come up
with more than just a wet face; she’d also know the name of her future mate.
Some enterprising hostesses who owned
apple trees went one step further. While the fruit was still green they
glued the initials of single males onto the apples. When the apples
ripened, the paper was washed off revealing the green initials on the rosy
cheeks. Upon arriving at the party, female guests would draw an
apple from the tub to find out the name of her dance partner.
Another popular game involving apples
required careful paring so that the peels were cut into one long strip. These
were then thrown over the left shoulder. The initial the peel made on the
floor was the initial of a future love.
Peelings were also hung from barn
doors and female guests given a number. If for example you got number two, then
the second male through the door was your true love.
Another crowd pleaser was the cobweb
game. Guests were each given two bright colored threads attached to a
cardboard heart in some remote corner. The threads ran through the room in an
intricate pattern. The idea was to unravel your thread by bobbing under a red
thread or slipping through a tangle of green or blue threads until you reached
the cardboard heart which named your partner for the night.
Halloween games also included the game
of Proposal. Each woman was given a stack of cardboard hearts and lemons.
The males had to go around the room and propose to each woman. He had thirty
seconds to convince her to marry him. When the bell rang she would either give
him a lemon for no
or a heart for yes.
At the end of the game, the man with the most hearts won.
With all the ghosts and goblins of
today it’s hard to imagine a time when Halloween was just another word for
romance.
I never liked Halloween, even as a child. It's too dark for me. What about you? Are you a Halloween person?
He's a Texas Ranger and she just shot him!
Margaret's story: The Nutcracker Bride
All twelve stories can be published singularly or together.
No, I don't like Halloween. I have always been sensitive to dark and evil anything. I became a Christian at 12 years old and, of course, that sensitivity became even more pronounced.
ReplyDeleteHi Terrill, it's seems like Halloween has gotten darker through the years. Now I see little ones dressed up in ugly costumes.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed it as a kid but no I don't do halloween anymore.
ReplyDeleteHi Kim, I pass out candy, but that's about it.
DeleteYa know, Halloween has never been a favorite for me. I didn't like dressing up, I didn't like Trick or Treating....no, not for me!!!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I use to enjoy the candy. Those were the days when we didn't have to worry about calories!
DeleteI don't do halloween either. When the little kids dressed up cute.. It was fun - but I agree now it's gotten darker..
ReplyDeleteDeanna, I use to love seeing the cute costumes. Oddly, enough we have more Halloween activities in my town for pets than children.
DeleteVery interesting post on Halloween games. I, also, don't care for the dark side of Halloween. I took our granddaughter to a pumpkin patch yesterday. She is 13 months and chose 1 large pumpkin and 1 small pumpkin for me to buy for her!
ReplyDeleteShe has very good taste! Thanks for the post and would love to win The 12 Brides of Christmas. sm wileygreen1(at)yahoo(dot)com
Hi Sharon, the pumpkin patch must have been fun. Aren't grandkiddies the greatest?
DeleteI used to go trick or treating as a kid, back when you could go around to your neighborhood and not have to worry about your safety, either physical or in your candy. Nowadays, I don't celebrate it nor do I even give out candy, never have. Since I've become a Christian, I don't want to acknowledge the holiday. My kids never went out, the only thing we've ever done was a harvest party at a church somewhere with fun games and prizes.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about it becoming much more dark. I've seen some pretty ugly & gory movies they always show on TV right before Halloween. And not to mention the costumes they have now....yikes! This was an interesting post on old fashioned games, they sound like a lot of fun and I definitely wouldn't associate Halloween with romance :-) How fun was that to discover!
We stopped participating in Hallowe'en when my youngest child came home from school and said he had trouble concentrating that day. He had been disturbed by sight of the kid next to him with a face streaked with blood because of the axe stuck in his head.
ReplyDeleteThe next year, my youngest asked if he could stay home from school on the 31st. I agreed. I also realized that none of the kids would be getting much learning done, so the day before, I sent the oldest with a note that said, "My children will not be attending school on the 31st because we don't believe horror is conducive to their education."
The school shrugged.
As for giving out treats, we've lived on a farm for 15 years and we're too far from town to warrant a drive out. Perhaps if we gave out something expensive, but really, why nurture a dark environment. No thank you.
However, the youth group enjoys the annual corn maze sometime during the month of October.
Great post, Margaret. I hadn't realized this aspect of western culture and really like that they incorporated romance into their games.
Margaret, thank you for a marvelous post. I'm not a Halloween person either. Every year I'm thankful we live rural and our neighbors don't have school age children. My husband (retired), our daughter, my sister (retired), her daughter and son-in-law are teachers or principals in elementary or junior high settings. They all have to deal with the non-learning days of Halloween week, not just the day of.
ReplyDelete