Hallowe'en History

Hallowe'en Traditions

• If you hear footsteps behind you on Hallowe’en, don't look back. It may be the dead following you. Turning back could mean that you will soon join the dead.
• Girls who carry a lamp to a spring of water on Hallowe’en can see their future husband in the reflection.
• On Hallowe’en girls who carry a broken egg in a glass to a spring of water (during the day) can not only see their future husband by mixing some of the spring water into the glass, but she can also see a glimpse of her future children.
• An old tradition was that girls should go into a field on Hallowe’en and there scatter the seed of hemp. While they did so they chanted “Hempseed I sow thee, come after me and show me”. Upon suddenly turning round, it was declared that each girl would see a vision of the man who would be her husband.
• Bobbing for Apples - Each member of the party is given an apple, from which a small piece has been cut, and into which a fortune written on a slip of paper has been inserted. The apples are thrown into a large tub of water and the company invited to duck their heads and retrieve an apple with their mouths. Upon doing so they draw out the slip of paper and read their fortune.
• On Hallowe’en, to find out of your lover is true, select one of the letters which you have received from your sweetheart, especially one which contains a particularly passionate and important declaration; lay it wide open upon a table and then fold it nine times. Pin the folds together, place the letter in your left-hand glove, and slip it under your pillow. If on that night you dream of silver, gems, glass, castles or clear water, your lover is true and his declarations are genuine; if you dream of linen, storms, fire, wood, flowers, or he is saluting you, he is false and has been deceiving you.
• Mashed potatoes offer a method of divining who will be the first to wed. On Hallowe’en into the heap of mashed potatoes a ring, a three penny-bit, a button, a heart-shaped charm, a shell and a key are inserted. Then all the lights in the room are turned out, and each guest, armed with a spoon or fork, endeavours to find the hidden charms. The one who finds the ring win marry first; the three penny-bit signifies wealth; the button, bachelorhood or spinsterhood; the heart, passionate love; the shell, long journeys; the key, great success and power.
• The old Celtic custom was to light great bonfires on Hallowe’en, and after these had burned out to make a circle of the ashes of each fire. Within this circle, and near the circumference, each member of the various families that had helped to make a fire would place a pebble. If, on the next day, any stone was out of its place, or had been damaged, it was held to be an indication that the one to whom the stone belonged would die within twelve months.
• If you go to a crossroads at Hallowe’en and listen to the wind, you will learn all the most important things that will befall you during the next twelve months.
• A person born on Hallowe’en can see and talk to spirits.
• To prevent ghosts coming into the house at Hallowe’en, bury animal bones or a picture of an animal near the doorway.
• If a girl puts a sprig of rosemary herb and a silver sixpence under her pillow on Hallowe’en night, she will see her future husband in a dream.
• In Britain, people believed that the Devil was a nut-gatherer. At Hallowe’en, nuts were used as magic charms.
• Some believe if you catch a snail on Hallowe’en night and lock it into a flat dish, in the morning you will see the first letter of your sweetheart written in the snail's slime.
• You should walk around your home three times backwards and counterclockwise before sunset on Hallowe’en to ward off evil spirits.
• If you see a spider on Hallowe’en, it could be the spirit of a dead loved one who is watching you.