

Over the years people have played divination games using many different mediums including bowls of water, molten lead, and ashes. In the Victorian Era, mirrors reigned supreme as the best methods to discover one's true love on Hallowe'en. Many a young lady stood in a darkened room with a candle and a mirror hoping her future husband's face would appear in the mirror. Because Samhain is a harvest festival, the fruits of the harvest also played a large role in celebrations and even in divination--nuts, beans, and apples have all been used to forecast the future. Potential couples tossed nuts into the fire to see if they cracked and exploded for a tempestuous relationship, or if they burned together slowly for long-lasting companionship. Couples also tossed a pair of hot beans into a pot of water--if they both sank the couple could hope for a happy future, if they both floated the couple could expect troubled waters, and if one sank and one didn't, they could expect not to marry at all.
But apples made for the most fun at parties and can still be found at Halloween parties today. Bobbing for them could divine the future in different ways: some believed the first to get an apple would be the first to marry, others wrote names on their apples and the apple one caught would be their future mate. Older couples would face off against each other with apples suspended on strings from the ceiling, each attempting to be the first to bite it, and getting very close to each other in the process. But the practice of "reading" apple peels has been around the longest:
I pare this pippin round and round again,
My sweetheart's name to flourish on the plain;
I fling the unbroken paring o'er my head,
My sweetheart's letter on the ground is read.
People had fun paring an apple into one continuous trip, tossing it over their shoulder, and trying to determine what letter the peeling formed the shape of to determine what their true love's first name began with.
So if you're planning a Halloween celebration, think about adding a little history and mystery to your party with one or two of these simple divination games. Or if you'd rather sit back and enjoy a good Halloween story, check out our new spooky romantic comedy release, At the Sign of the Jack O' Lantern, which features a quirky cast of superstitious characters and an entire collection of gorgeous full-color vintage Halloween postcards. And I'll leave you with my own wishes for your good fortune:
Witchcraft is due on Hallowe'en,
May it bring good luck upon the scene.
At the Sign of the Jack O' Lantern
by Myrtle Reed
by Myrtle Reed
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