Hallowe'en Traditions up to 1903
The origin of traditions connected with Hallowe'en, like those surrounding many other subjects, is lost in antiquity; and though the traditions themselves are composed of such material as the fancies…
From: Unknown To: 1904 C.E.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“Hallowe'en” from The Year’s Festivals by Helen Philbrook Patten, 1903.
"There is a world in which we dwell,
And yet a world invisible!
And do not think that naught can be,
Save only what with eyes ye see;
I tell ye, that, this very hour,
Had but your sight a spirit's power,
Ye would be looking, eye to eye,
At a terrific company!"
"I tell ye the story this chill Hallowe'en,
For it suiteth the Spirit eve;
The spirits are pulling the sere dry leaves
Of the shadowy forest down.
And howl the gaunt reapers that gather the sheaves,
With the moon, o'er their revels, to frown.
To-morrow ye'll find all the spoils in your path,
And ye'll speak of the wind and the sky;
But oh, could ye see them to-night, in their wrath,
I ween ye'd be frenzied of eye!"
"In the hinder end of harvest upon All Hallow Eve,
Quhen our gude nichbours rydis (now gif I reid richt)
Some bucklet on a benwood and some on a bene,
Ay trottand into troupes fra the twilicht."
— King James VI.
How many times have those people, vaguely called Ancient Heathen, been responsible for inaugurating habits which have been blindly followed by all nations for thousands of years. It may be that these ancients were particularly original and farsighted, and, having satisfied all the demands of their own lives, prophetically discerned the needs of future people, and established customs which would adapt themselves to all races for all times.
But it is easier to suppose that certain traits inherent in human nature have been, and always will be, expressed, regardless of example. If the first man was a superstitious one, then the last man will have at least some little superstition hanging about him.
People have been credulous in supernatural things from the beginning of time, and the origin of certain traditions, like the absolute origin of superstition, can never be reached. Many customs which prevail have been preserved simply as a matter of thoughtless habit, others by the power of imagination, which has made vague beliefs appear as realities, and which has kept alive certain observances, when all knowledge of their causes has long been forgotten.
The origin of traditions connected with Hallowe'en, like those surrounding many other subjects, is lost in antiquity; and though the traditions themselves are composed oi such material as the fancies of people, they seem to have survived shocks which would destroy a more substantial thing.
Even in these practical, matter-of-fact times, we meet people who have their superstitions about dreams, folk-medicine, weather-proverbs, the number thirteen, and the fulfilment of wishes upon various conditions; and every one is familiar with the witch, wizard, hobgoblin, and evil eye of past days.
Our forefathers looked upon nature with reverence and horror, and delighted to astonish themselves with the apprehensions of witchcraft, prodigies, charms, and enchantments. There was not a village in England that had not at least one ghost in it; the churchyards were all haunted, every village green had its circle of fairies, and there was scarce a shepherd to be met with who had not seen a spirit.
At times superstitions have been exaggerated into insane foreboding. Nature's simplest phenomena meant some disaster; dreams and visions of the morbid were accepted as divine inspirations; the commonest object was raised to the importance of an oracle; demon-music was heard in the wind, and destiny read in the stars.
There were always some, however, who, during the times of greatest excitement, kept their senses, and, by coolly directing suspicion to one who might be a witch or have an evil eye, could often rid themselves of many a disagreeable person; so the practical man made especial use of the superstitions of his neighbors.
Talk about supernatural things was almost as universal and interesting as talk about the weather. Gay, the poet, tells us about—
"Those tales of vulgar sprites
Which frightened boys relate on winter nights,
How cleanly milkmaids meet the fairy train,
How headless horses drag the clinking chain,
Night roaming ghosts by saucer eyeballs known,
The common spectres of each country town."
Many ancient popular divinations were associated with a particular season, and the observations connected with Hallowe'en probably represent a heathen festival whose celebration consisted in giving to the departed, at harvest-time, his share of the fruits of the earth. At this time the spirits of the dead were supposed to walk abroad, and all practices, as are shown by ancient magic and savage custom, were of such a nature as would be favorable for spirits to manifest themselves.
In these ceremonies, water, fire, all the elements of nature, with the sun, moon, and stars, were resorted to, that the spirits might easily find expression; but there seems to have been little success in gaining very much general knowledge, for in modern times only those superstitions have the greatest interest for us which are based on the broadest and most human foundation—those connected with death and marriage.
So the custom of prying after knowledge about future partners for life, is but a survival of an older practice, and though the special intention of many ceremonies has been forgotten, Hallowe'en customs show the lively desire of all young people to look into the future with reference to marriage.
However it came about, it is quite certain that the evening of the thirty-first of October has been stamped with a peculiar character, by the popular imagination. The notion prevails that the supernatural rules. Spirits walk the earth, shades haunt all convenient places, spooks hide in every corner, and hobgoblins run wild.
In spite of all this uncanniness, instead of being paralyzed with fear, people court these unseen things, who have the reputation of being friendly devils, and who will give valuable information upon important subjects if approached rightly, and if one complies with some simple condition.
The questions with which these invisibles are taxed usually refer to somebody's love-affair; that being settled, all minor matters will easily adjust themselves.
If these spirits take such interest in mortals that they are willing to show gratuitously how young people may solve their hearts' riddles, surely one cannot hesitate to perform a few simple rites.
First there is the oracle of the nuts. A number of nuts are named for lovers and put upon a bed of coals. If a nut jumps, the lover will prove unfaithful,—probably he is a man of spirit, and finds conditions too hot for him. If a nut blazes and burns, he surely loves the girl who named the nut, —the fires of love rage in his bosom. If both nuts named for a maid and her lover burn together, they will be married. It is well that anxious ones performing this ceremony be provided with very dry, combustible nuts and a fine bed of red coals. An early eighteenth-century poet has taken this ceremony so seriously that he has put it into verse:
"These glowing nuts are emblems true
Of what in human life we view;
The ill-matched couple fret and fume,
And thus in strife themselves consume;
Or from each other wildly start
And with a noise forever part.
But see this very happy pair,
Of genuine love and truth sincere,
With mutual fondness, while they burn
Still to each other kindly turn,
And as the vital sparks decay
Together gently sink away
Till life's fierce ordeal being past
Their mingled ashes rest at last."
Nuts seem to have been used very early for purposes of divination. The Roman boys made some use of nuts in their sports, for Horace speaks of it; and in marriage ceremonies among the Romans, the bride-groom threw nuts about the room for the boys to scramble for. In the ancient Romish calendar nuts are referred to, as some religious use was made of them.
Gay, in the "Spell," refers to the nut-burning ceremony:
"Two hazel nuts I threw into the flame,
And to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name;
This, with the loudest bounce me sore amaz'd,
That, in a flame of brightest color blaz'd;
As blaz'd the nut, so may thy passion grow,
For thus the hazel nut did brightly glow!"Doctor Goldsmith, in the "Vicar of Wakefield," says that "the rustics religiously cracked nuts on All Hallow's Eve," and nuts are so much used in England and Scotland that Hallowe'en is called
"Nut-crack night."
Burns gives a picture of the nut-burning rite:
"The auld guidwife's weel hoordet nits,
Are round and round divided,
And monie lads' and lassies' fates,
Are there that night decided;
Some kindle, couthie, side by side,
An' burn togither trimly;
Some start awa' wi' saucy pride,
And jump out owre the chimlie
Fu high that night."
An old Scotch method of seeing future things, is to pull a cabbage, blindfolded.
A young woman would grope her way to the cabbage-patch and pull the first plant she stumbled against. The amount of earth clinging to its root showed the amount of her dowry, the shape and size indicated the appearance and height of the future husband, while the flavor of the heart and stem signified his disposition.
In the old Scottish Hallowe'en game each took home the stalk and laid it behind the outer door, and the first person to enter next morning was to be the future husband.
This old gruesome rhyme is supposed to refer to this cabbage pulling:
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
If all are white, all go to heaven;
If one is black as Mustaph's evil,
He'll soon be screechin' wi' the devil."
Another Scotch rhymester has described the ceremony of the kail stalk:
"Then first and foremost through the kail,
Their slocks maun a' be sought ance:
They steek their e'en, an grip an wale
For muckle anes, and straight anes."
An appropriate Hallowe'en method of inducing visions directs a young lady to eat an apple while standing before a mirror combing her hair. The future husband will look into the glass over her shoulder. To be effectual this must be done at midnight, but such is the unaccountable nature of woman that the test is often abandoned when the very moment of fulfilment is near at hand. After all, she would rather believe that there is a some one, somewhere, whom her thought may vaguely idealize, than to know definitely the face and form of one, who, after all, might disappoint her. How much better, then, she thinks, to spend the night in refreshing sleep, than to try to explore the future by such uncanny tricks, when her excited imagination is as likely to produce a fiend as a god—or a husband.
Another night spell is, to walk backward several rods, out-of-doors, in the moonlight, with a mirror, or if this is done indoors, with a candle in one hand and a mirror in the other, repeating the following rhyme. A face will (without doubt!) be seen in the glass.
"Round and round, O stars so fair!
Ye travel and search out everywhere;
I pray you, sweet stars, now show to me
This night who my future husband shall be."
Many of the rhymes are written to be said by girls, it being taken for granted that only they are curious about matrimonial affairs. Should there, however, be inquisitive young men, this Scotch test is good for those who have plenty of courage and a good constitution. "You go out, one or more, for this is a social spell, to a south-running spring or rivulet, where three lairds' lands meet, and dip your left shirt-sleeve. Go to bed in sight of a fire, and hang your wet sleeve before it to dry. Lie awake, and sometime near midnight an apparition, having the exact figure of the grand object in question, will come and turn the sleeve as if to dry the other side of it."
It is not stated whether you detach the sleeve from your shirt for these processes, nor is the recipe given for curing your next morning's feelings, which have naturally resulted from a wetting, a sleepless night, and, very probably, a failure to see the grand object you expected at midnight.
Burns tells us of the Widow Leezie, who, perhaps, having exhausted all others, was hard put for a new test, and used this one, originally intended for mankind alone:
"A wanton widow Leezie was,
As cantie as a kitlin;
But och! that night among the shaws
She got a fearfu' settlin'!
She thro' the whins, an' by the cairn,
An' owre the hill gaed scrievin;
Where three lairds' lan's met at the burn,
To dip her left sark-sleeve in,
Was bent that night."
Another trick was to go out at night alone, into the barn, and take the implement for winnowing corn, called in Scotland a "wecht," go through the motions of winnowing three times, and the future husband will pass through the barn, so—
"Meg fain wad to the barn gaen,
To winn three wechts o' naething;
But for to meet the deil her lane,
She pat but little faith in:
She gies the herd a pickle nits,
An' twa red cheekit apples,
To watch, while for the barn she sets,
In hopes to see Tarn Kipples
That vera night."
Gay, in his "Pastorals," describes a Hallowe'en custom which was sure of results, but needed much patience.
A young girl says:
"At eve last Hallowe'en no sleep I sought,
But to the field, a bag of hemp seed brought,
I scattered round the seed on ev'ry side,
And three times in a trembling accent cry'd:
'This hemp seed with my virgin hand I sow,
Who shall my true love be, the crop shall mow.' "
In another verse is described the experience of a rustic maiden whose method of divination was quite easy and successful:
"As peascods once I plucked I chanced to see
One that was closely filled with three times three,
Which when I crop'd, I safely home convey'd,
And o'er the door the spell in secret laid;—
The latch moved up, when who should first come in,
But in his proper person—Lubberkin!"
This girl is bound to see Lubberkin in all her experiments, and she is not satisfied till she has tested all probabilities:
"I pare this pippin round and round again,
My shepherd's name to flourish on the plain,
I fling th' unbroken paring o'er my head,
"Upon the grass a perfect L is read."
She tries again :
"This pippin shall another tryal make,
See from the core two kernels brown I take;
This on my cheek for Lubberkin is worn,
And Booby Clod on t'other side is borne;
But Booby Clod soon drops upon the ground,
A certain token that his love's unsound.
While Lubberkin sticks firmly to the last;
Oh, were his lips to mine but join'd so fast."
There are many other ways with which simple people in earnest, and wise people in sport, try to discern future things.
An easy way is for each person to melt some lead and pour it through a wedding-ring into a dish of water. The lead will cool in various shapes which may (or may not) be suggestive of future events. An ingenious imagination will see weddings in bell-shaped drops, fame in a lead torch, wealth in a horn of plenty, and travel in a trunk. In fact, one can make almost anything out of the lead shapes, and interpret them in almost any way.
There are other ways of finding out in a very few minutes what will take years to discover by more scientific methods.
Cut the letters of the alphabet from a newspaper and sprinkle them on the surface of water; the floating letters will combine to spell the name of future husband or wife.
String a raisin in the middle of a thread a yard long and let two persons take each an end of the string in his mouth; whoever, by chewing the string, reaches the raisin first, has the raisin, and (if he lives) will be the first to be wedded.
Tie a wedding-ring to a silk thread and hold it suspended within a goblet; then repeat the alphabet slowly; whenever the ring strikes the side of the goblet, begin the alphabet again, and in this way spell out the name of your life-partner.
If a maiden wants to tempt the future, let her walk down-stairs backward, holding a lighted candle over her head. Upon reaching the bottom, if she turns around suddenly, before her will stand the wished-for one—at least, he will be there if he has any idea of what is going on; therefore he must have a previous hint, if this test is to be successful.
The crowning Hallowe'en test is made by a girl who must go directly to her room without speaking to any one, and, kneeling beside her bed, must twine together the stems of two roses (roses in October!), and repeat the following lines, looking meanwhile upon the lover's rose:
"Twine, twine and intertwine,
Let my love be wholly mine;
If his heart be kind and true,
Deeper grow his rose's hue."
If her admirer be faithful, the color of the rose will appear darker. If unfaithful, deponent saith not what happens.
In an old book of charms published in Edinburgh in 1690, entitled "Old Father Time's Bundle of Faggots Newly Bound Up," we are told that an infallible means of getting a sight of the future lady is to place on a table a glass of water in which a small piece of wood is floating. In the night you will dream of falling from a bridge into a river, and of being rescued by one whom you will see as distinctly as though you were awake. Gay says of this:
"Last Hallowe'en I looked my love to see
And tried a spell to call her up to me.
With wood and water standing by my side,
I dreamed a dream and saw my own sweet bride."
Another method is to go at midnight to a walnut-tree, walk three times around it, look up into the branches, and ask your true love to bring you some nuts.
“Last Hallow Eve I sought a walnut-tree
In hopes my true Love's face that I might see.
Three times I called, three times I walked apace;
Then in the tree I saw my true Love's face."
A very old Hallowe'en divination, which was formerly much practised by the English rustics, will tell you from what quarter of the compass the future husband or wife will come. Go out—of course, at midnight—pluck out a lock of hair and cast it to the breeze. In whatever direction it is blown, from that point will come the long-expected person. Gay, in the "Pastorals," has put all these things in verse and refers to this one:
"I pluck this lock of hair from off my head
To tell whence comes the one that I shall wed.
Fly, silken hair, fly all the world around,
Until you reach the spot where my true love is found."
Another very similar way is also described in verse:
"This Lady Fly I take from off the grass,
Whose spotted back might scarlet red surpass.
Fly, Lady Bird, North, South, or East or West,
Fly where the man is found that I love best."
With such a variety of experiments suited to all sorts and conditions, and which may be practised at all times of day or night, there need not be any one who is at all doubtful as to his future in matrimonial affairs. If one spell does not satisfy, try another, try all, but let us be sure to settle the matter somehow, for until that is done, I fear some of us will never rest.
In Ireland upon Hallowe'en the whole family partake of the mysterious spirit of the time. Aged grandsires delight to recall their youthful days, when people expected the marvellous, and the most unaccountable things caused no wonder. Then midnight goblins lurked everywhere, women dressed in white glided about, gaunt warriors galloped through dark glens in black armor, with plumes of waving fire, and crowds of transparent figures revelled among old ruins or danced in the moonlight.
A traveller, who could not avoid making a journey on that night, played boisterous tunes on his pipe or roared a lively song to frighten away elves and hobgoblins who haunted the dark and played tricks upon quiet travellers.
While at these home gatherings the grandfathers tell stories of the good old days, the mothers sit knitting. Their past is not so far behind as to be surrounded with a pleasant mist, while enough of the future is guessed to leave no room for curiosity. But the girls are still prying. They are dumbly kneading cake with their left thumbs—a single word would break the spell, and destroy the hope of seeing their future husbands in dreams, after having eaten the mystic "dumb-cake."
While the girls are busy getting wisdom from dumb-cakes, the boys of the family, who care neither for past or future, indulge in the present joys of "snap-apple." From the ceiling is hung a skewer with an apple stuck upon one end, and on the other a lighted candle. Whoever is dexterous enough to catch the apple in his mouth takes it as a prize? while the boy who catches the candle gets only burns. A singed head and a mouthful of tallow is awarded to all. To these boys Hallowe'en means only a time to enjoy boisterous games, with plenty of nuts and apples to play with and to eat; the mysterious influence caught and utilized by their elders passes entirely over their young heads.
The Hallowe'en party described by Burns shows how the Scotch liked to spend the night. The whole list of ceremonies was gone through, with more or less success; every lass was in high spirits, and every lad determined that each vision should material- ize.
The poem "Hallowe'en” opens and closes with a picture—the various Hallowe'en ceremonies being described in intervening stanzas:
"Among the bonie winding banks
Where Doon rins wimplin clear;
Where Bruce ance rul'd the martial ranks,
An' shook his Carrick spear:
Some merry, friendly, contra-folks
Together did convene
To burn their nits, an' pou their stocks,
An' haud their Hallowe'en
Fu blythe that night.
"Wi' merry songs an' friendly cracks,
I wat they did na weary;
And unco tales, an' funnie jokes —
Their sports were cheap an' cheery;
Till buttered sowens, wi' fragrant lunt,
Set a' their gabs a-steerin';
Syne, wi' a social glass o' strunt
They parted aff careerin'
Fu blythe that night."
Patten, Helen Philbrook. The Year’s Festivals, Dana Setes & Company, 1903.
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