How did they divine the names of future mates back on Halloween night? This short little article from 1912 gives Halloween charms that were practiced during the time. However, since the divinations involve playing with candles and can be dangerous, I am placing this article here for research purposes only.
Charms For The Witching Night
Boys and Girls Learn Initials of Future Mates
In one Halloween frolic the boys and girls were afforded an opportunity to learn the initials of the person to be most closely connected with their futures, understood to be one of the opposite sex, of course.
A dish of water darkened (with sepia), and another of clear, were produced and several sticks of sealing wax — 1/2 the quantity white, the other black.
To ascertain the initial of the Christian name the youth or maiden lighted the white wax, holding it over the black dish until a drop fell. The congealed wax was then dipped out on a spoon when, in some cases the letter was clearly indicated. In others there was a faint indication, showing possibility, while again the wax became a formless mass which was interpreted by the seeress to mean doubt of any romance in the life or fate too far in the future to be divined.
To ascertain the surname the black wax was melted into the white water and interpreted the same way. Each Halloweener was directed to hold the wax himself and to personally apply the match in order to make the charm valid.
Exciting Game
Another charm was extremely pretty and equally exciting. This required a small tub of water. The names of the unmarried men present were written by the gypsy on small squares of paper, which were then gathered up at the sides and twisted at the top in such a way that they resisted the water and would float for some time before sinking. At the same moment that the named papers were placed on the water a candle end glued to a chip of wood was set afloat on the tub, the candle being lighted and named for some girl of the party.
The candle, of course, drifted among the papers and before long set fire to some one of them. When this occurred the light of the candle was extinguished and the papers that remained unscathed were opened and read. The interference was that the youth who had first felt the fire of love was about to cherish or even then concealing some tender feeling for the lassie for whom the candle was named.
The candle was then relighted, named for another girl, and all the men’s names but the one which had been burned were committed to the waves once more. This continued until all the girls and men had been paired off by sorcery.
Where the young people do not know each other well, or for a girl’s frolic where the young men are not present in the flesh, a dozen Christian names common among men can be used on the slips and the game proceed as before.
Source: The Washington Herald. Newspaper. October 27, 1912.
