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Halloween

Categories: LOVE AND MARRIAGE

303. A Halloween custom is to fill a tub with water and drop into it as

many apples as there are young folks to try the trick. Then each one must

kneel before the tub and try to bite the apples without touching them

with the hands. The one who bites one first will marry first.

Alabama.



304. On Halloween hang an apple by the door just the height of the chin.

Rub the chin with saliva, stand about
ix inches from the apple, and hit

the chin against the apple. If it sticks to the chin, you will be

married, and your true love will stick to you.

St. John, N.B.



305. A girl goes to a field on Halloween at midnight to steal cabbages.

The first one whom she meets on her return will be her husband.

Boston, Mass.



306. On Halloween at midnight a young lady in her night-dress walks

backward into the garden and pulls up a cabbage. She will see her future

husband over her shoulder.

Eastern Massachusetts.



307. I wind, I wind, my true love to find,

The color of his hair, the clothes he'll wear,

The day he is married to me.



Throw a ball of yarn into a barn, old house, or cellar, and wind,

repeating the above lines, and the true love will appear and wind with

you. To be tried at twelve o'clock at night, on Halloween.

Maine.



308. Shortly before midnight a pure white bowl is procured, that has

never been touched by any lips save those of a new-born infant. If it is

a woman whose fortune is to be tried (and it generally is) the child must

be a male. The bowl is filled with water from a spring-well, after which

twenty-six pieces of white paper about an inch square, on each of which

must be written one letter of the alphabet, are placed in the bowl with

the letters turned downward. These must be dropped in as the clock

strikes midnight, or all will fail. All being ready, the maiden

interested repeats the lines:--



Kind fortune, tell me where is he

Who my future lord shall be;

From this bowl all that I claim

Is to know my lover's name.



The bowl is then securely locked away, and must not be disturbed till

sunrise the following morning, when she is placed before it blindfolded.

She then picks out the same number of letters as there are in her own

name. After these are all out the bandage is removed from her eyes, and

the paper letters spread out before her. She manages them so as to spell

a man's name as best she can with the letters at her disposal. The name

thus found will be that of her future husband.

Trinity and Catalina Bays, N.F.



309. On Halloween a girl is to go through a graveyard, steal a cabbage

and place it above the house-door. The one on whom the cabbage falls as

the door is opened is to be the girl's husband.

Massachusetts.



310. On Halloween walk backwards from the front door, pick up dust or

grass, bring it in, wrap it in paper, put it under your pillow, and dream.

Pennsylvania.



311. On Halloween put an egg to roast before the fire and leave the doors

and windows open. When it begins to sweat a cat will come in and turn it.

After the cat will come the man you are to marry, and he will turn it. If

you are to die unmarried, the shadow of a coffin will appear.

Chestertown, Md.



312. On Halloween go upstairs backwards, eating a hard boiled egg without

salt, and looking in the glass. You will see your future husband in the

glass, looking over your shoulder.

St. John, N.B.



313. On Halloween go down the cellar stairs backward, carrying a mirror

into which you look. A face will be seen over your shoulder which will be

that of your future husband.

General in the United States.



314. On the last night of October place a mirror and a clock in a room

that has not been used for some time, and at a quarter to twelve take a

lighted candle and an apple, and finish eating the apple just as the

clock strikes twelve, and then look in the mirror and you will see your

future husband.

Alabama.



315. On Halloween put a ring in a dish of mashed potatoes, and the one

who gets the ring will be married first.

Boston, Mass.



316. On Halloween mash potatoes and conceal in the mass a ring, a coin,

and a button. Divide it into as many portions as there are persons

present. The ring denotes marriage, the coin riches, and the button

misfortune.

Massachusetts.



317. Silent Supper. On Halloween set a table as if for supper, with as

many seats at the table as there are girls, each girl standing behind a

chair at the table. The one you are to marry will come in and take the

chair in front of you.

Chestertown, Md.



318. On Halloween write names of three men on three pieces of paper, roll

them into balls, put these into balls made of Indian meal (wet so as to

roll up), put the balls of meal into a basin of water: whichever one

rises to the top bears the name of the one you'll marry.

Salem, Mass.



319. On Halloween, girls place three saucers beside each other, two

filled with earth and water, in the other a ring. They are respectively

death, cloister or unmarried life, and marriage.

Convent School, Manchester, N.H.



320. On Easter Monday, put on one black garter and one yellow one, and

wear them constantly, and you'll have a proposal before the year is out.

Chestertown, Md.



321. Knit a garter and color it yellow. Don it on Easter Day. Wear it for

a year. The wearer will be engaged before the year is out.

Salem, Mass.



322. On May first look in an unused well, and you'll see the face of your

future husband or wife.

New Hampshire.



323. If you look into a well at exactly twelve o'clock, on the first day

of May, through a smoked glass, you will see your future husband.

Alabama.



324. Hold a mirror over a well on May first, and you will see the image

of your future husband or wife.

Talladega, Ala.



325. On Midsummer's Day wet a new garment in running water and hang

across a chair, wrong side out, to dry. At twelve noon or midnight the

one who is to marry you will be seen turning the garment.

Labrador.



326. Place an egg in a tumbler on St. John's Day. The tumbler being half

filled with water, an egg is broken into it at early dawn, and it is

placed in the window, where it remains untouched till sundown. At that

time the broken egg is supposed to have assumed a special shape, in which

the ingenious maiden sees dimly outlined the form of her future lord, or

some emblem of his calling.

Newfoundland.



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