Happy October, friends!

Along with ghosts, goblins, and trick-or-treating, I learned Halloween was as much a time for romance as it was for pranks. Who would have thought?

To find love on the night of the dead, demons, witches, and goblins? Um, that’s a little bit concerning, no? Would you go ‘yay’ or be ‘boo-ed’ away by these strange Halloween traditions?

Many old Halloween traditions included fortune telling, and many of those fortune-telling rituals focused on how to learn about your true love. Here are a few Halloween love spells that I found in in my research. Most of these Halloween traditions were popular in the 1800s and later. Each is something that people said you could do on Halloween night to learn of your true love.

If Match.com hasn’t been working for you perhaps you want to try one of these vintage Halloween traditions, or perhaps you will just find them interesting like I did.

Oh, and the idea of seeing my true love as an apparition, as is the hope of many of these rituals, would be disconcerting. These Halloween traditions make me happy I’m not in the market for romance or marriage.

Reflection in the mirror

There are a few versions of a Halloween tradition that results in seeing your true love in a mirror at midnight.

One version says you should go secretly into a room at midnight on Halloween and cut an apple into nine slices. You should eat the apple slices in front of a mirror, holding each slice on the point of knife before eating it. As you do this you will supposedly see the image of your true love over your left shoulder asking for the final apple slice.

Another version says you should eat the apple while holding a candle and looking in the mirror. Then you will see your future husband or wife over your shoulder.

Yet another version says you should comb your hair while eating the apple and looking in the mirror in order to see your future spouse over your shoulder.

The most precarious version says that at midnight you should go down the stairs backwards and holding a mirror, in which you will see your future mate.

I suspect that last one only works if your future mate happens to be the paramedic who responds after your horrible fall from walking down the stairs backwards in the middle of the night.

Burning the nuts

Place two hazelnuts (or some say chestnuts) in a fire after naming each for the people in a couple. If the nuts burn together side by side the relationship will last. But if one of the nuts cracks or jumps out of the fire the couple will split.

Pulling the cabbage

The cabbage’s popularity also made its way into becoming a fortune telling device. One popular method was for a girl to steal a cabbage and then place that cabbage over a door. The first man the cabbage fell on would be the man she was supposed to marry. Women would also pick cabbages and use the stumps to predict information about their future husband.

Making cakes

Fortune telling in cakes has been a tradition for many different holidays. The Irish had their own version called Barmbrack where various objects were baked into bread to tell one’s future relationship status. If a person received a pea, that person would not marry in the upcoming year, a stick would signify an unhappy marriage, and a ring would mean that person would be wed within a year.

The three bowls

Place three bowls in a row. Fill one with clean water and one with dirty water. Leave the third bowl empty. Put the bowls in a random order then lead a man blindfolded to them to dip his left hand in one of the bowls. If he puts his hand in the clean water, he will have a young wife. If he puts his hand in the dirty water, he will end up with an old widow. If he puts his hand in the empty bowl, he will forever be a bachelor. This process should be done three times moving the bowls each time.

 The other end of the yarn

Throw a ball of yarn out the window (or into a pot of water on the stove, depending on the version), and hold onto to the other end. As you wind the yarn back up repeat, “I wind, who holds?” again and again. Before you reach the end of the yarn the face of your love will appear in the window and/or the name of your love will be whispered in your ear.

Making an initial from an apple skin

Here’s another Halloween tradition involving an apple. Pare an apple in one continuous piece of skin without breaking it. Move the skin around your head three times then throw it over your left shoulder. The letter that it forms on the ground is the initial of your future husband or wife.

So, this year when the moon is full and bright, try your hand at a fortune telling delight, you might just find your true love on Halloween night.

Happy Halloween Y’all!

 

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