Halloween Games Of Old
October 27, 2009
I was researching Halloween festivities during the 19th century, which beautifully coincides with the fact that Halloween is only three days away, and I stumbled across a great painting. Perhaps artistically it is of no great importance, but from a historical research standpoint it’s very informative. The painting is called Snap-Apple Night and it was created by an Irish artist named Daniel Maclise. Sources say the inspiration for the piece came from a Halloween party the painter attended in 1832.
The characters in the painting are taking part in both familiar Halloween pastimes, such as bobbing for apples, and the not so familiar, like divination games and an event where the participant tried to snatch an apple hanging on a string in mid-air. To make the game even harder, the apple was placed on one end of a stick and a lighted candle was attached at the other. Once the contraption was balanced, a fellow participant would set it spinning, and it was up to the person playing to chomp down on the apple while avoiding being burnt. Doesn’t sound much like fun to me. I think I would rather get wet bobbing for the apple.
Divination games were hugely popular in the Victorian era. In one such game, young women who wished to see their future husband were told to sit in front a mirror at midnight holding—or eating, depending on the authority—an apple. Shortly, she would see a glimpse of her suitor in the reflection. Another husband divination game used hazelnuts. The girl was to assign possible lovers’ names to each nut and place them in the fire. Then she would chant, “If you love me, pop and fly; if you hate me, burn and die.” Obviously, the nut that popped first signaled who her future spouse was to be.
Silly as these games sound, they’re really not so different from the games young women participate in at slumber parties today. However, in the Victorian era, men even got into the spirit, so to speak. In a game played in England, three dishes were set out—one filled with clean water, one with dirty water, and one left empty. A young man was blindfolded and then led to the place where the dishes were set in a row. He was then told to reach out and place his left hand in one of the dishes. If the water in the dish was clean, then his wife would be a maid. If the water was dirty, she would be a widow. If the dish was empty, he would remain “a horrid old bachelor”. Seems a sad fate just for managing to keep your hand dry.
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