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.