The Halloween Chronicles: Night 5 of 11: Finding a Husband the Hard Way

THE HALLOWEEN CHRONICLES

Night 5 of 11 — Finding a Husband the Hard Way

Okay, ladies, did you know that Halloween used to be a pretty big night for finding yourself a husband? I’m not talking about getting all dressed up, going to a party, nightclub, meeting online…

Nay, nay…I’m talking about peeling apples, burning nuts, pulling vegetables out of the ground, and staring into mirrors in dark rooms. 😬

The crap women used to do to find a man. 🤦‍♀️

In the 1800s and early 1900s, Halloween parties weren’t quite like the ones we’re familiar with today. People did dress up, played games, danced, and had plenty of treats. But finding out who you were going to marry was also a pretty big deal. I’m so glad some of these traditions don’t exist today. 🤣

Ready to hear about some of those thing they did? Surprisingly getting knocked up isn’t one of them… 🤣

Let’s start with the apples.

One popular game involved peeling an apple, trying to keep the peel in one long piece. Then you’d throw it over your shoulder and see what letter it looked like when it landed.

That letter was supposedly the first initial of the person you were going to marry.

So you threw an apple peel on the floor and tried to convince yourself it looks like a B because you’ve got a crush on Billy down the street?
Okay, sounds legit. 🤨

Another tradition involving an apple..

A young woman would go into a dark room at midnight with an apple and a candle. She would eat the apple while looking into a mirror, and supposedly the face of her future husband would appear over her shoulder.

Oh, hell no.

I’m standing in a dark room at midnight, staring into a mirror, and suddenly some man’s face appears behind me?

You can kiss my arse 🤣

This wasn’t just some old ghost story, either. American newspapers were still printing instructions for this game in the early 1900s.

Now on to the nut-burning game. I’m not sure why I giggle every time I see this. 🤣

People would put two nuts next to each other in the fireplace. One represented themselves, and the other represented the person they were interested in.

If the nuts burned together, that was supposed to be a good sign. But if one popped or jumped away, apparently that relationship wasn’t going anywhere.

“I’m sorry, Henry. We can’t be together. The nuts have spoken” 🤣

How could we forget the vegetables, you ask?! Oh they are in on this too.

In Scotland, there was a Halloween tradition where people went outside, sometimes blindfolded, and pulled up a stalk of kale.

Yes, kale.

The size and shape of the stalk supposedly told them something about their future husband or wife. If there was a lot of dirt stuck to the roots, that meant your future spouse might have money. (Hmmm “Money is the ROOT of all evil 🤔)

These traditions weren’t something people just started doing in the 1900s. Scottish poet Robert Burns actually wrote about the kale-pulling and nut-burning games in 1786.

So apparently, people had been trying to figure out who they were going to marry this way for quite some time.

By the early 1900s, Halloween had become quite the social event. People were throwing parties, having dances, playing games, and newspapers were even printing instructions for some of these love-predicting activities.

In 1914, a Philadelphia newspaper published an article about Halloween love predictions.

One game involved twisting together the stems of two roses to supposedly find out whether somebody loved you.

Another involved pulling out a strand of your own hair and letting the wind blow it away. Whichever direction it went was supposed to tell you where your future husband or wife lived.

So apparently, if your hair blew toward the neighbor’s house, you might want to go introduce yourself. 🙃

Of course, you can’t have strange Halloween traditions without candles.

At some Halloween parties, young women would blow out rows of candles. The number left burning was supposed to tell them how many years they had left before getting married.

What I found interesting about all this is that Halloween wasn’t always the holiday for kids that most of us remember growing up.

Obviously, children celebrated it, too, but Halloween parties were also a big thing for young adults. It was a chance to get together, have some fun, maybe meet somebody, and apparently try every ridiculous trick imaginable to find out who they were going to marry. I can’t imagine these traditions holding up today. Not with technology and dating apps. My how we’ve evolved. 🥴

It’s funny to see how much Halloween traditions have changed.

I am wondering, though… should I go pull some kale out of the yard and see if Brandon is secretly rich? I think I skipped an important step in this relationship…🤣🤔

Question of the night: Would you have tried any of these Halloween husband-hunting games? And seriously, would you have the nerve to sit in a dark room at midnight and wait for some man’s face to appear in your mirror? Hell no. Not me. 🤣

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The Halloween Chronicles: Night 5 of 11: Finding a Husband the Hard Way

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Written by a member of The GXA: GenX Forum.