Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-26
ALL HALLOW EVE.
Quaint Superstitions and Other Folk
Lore Appropriate to the Night.
The Occasion for DivinIng the Answer TO
That Mompnious Question. Who is to
Marry Whom?'-Kow 1t Is Done.

Copyrighted and all rights reserved by Godfrey
| Williston Christine.
| For the Gazette.
| All boys and girls know that next Friday, Oc-
tober 81, will be Al! Hallow Eve, though most
of them corrupt its ma ae to Holly Eve They
know that it is night of mirth and mystery,
| special devoted to mischief, fun, incanta-
tions, divinatlons, charms and spells, but very
| few of them or their elders understand its real
significance, tell whence it derives its
| name.
| 1t is many centuries since the Roman church,
finding it impossible. fro the great and con-
startIy increasing multitude of the saints to set
apart separate day for each one, decreed that
| November should thenceforwa-d be kept a
day in honor of all the saints, and that 1t should
! be known All Hallow Mass or All Saints day,
| and that the night of October 81, Immediately
preceding it, should thereafter be sept as a
| vigil and be known rs All Hallow Eve, these &C.
| casions being still observed in the Catholic,
Episcopal and lutheran churches.
From its first origination Hallow Eve has been
invested with peculiarly mystic character. 1t is
an almost universal superstition that super
natural influences then have unusual power,
that devils, witches and fairies abroad, that
all spirits free to roam through space. and
that the spiritual elements II all living human
ity can be detached from corporal restraint and
made to read its own future or to reveal to others
what fate may have in store for them. As there
is nothing in the church celebration of the en-
suing DAY of All Saints to justify these singul
ideas and customs associated with Hal ow Eve,
and as mons of them are of a religious character,
we may justly regard them as relics OF Pagan
times.
In all ages and countries HaIlow Eve has been
deemed it still is, the occasion par excellence
FOR divining the answer to that inomentus ques-
ton which absorb so large a share of the
thoughts OF romantic young men and maidens,
'Who is to marry whonl?' The means en-
ployed to gain this much desired information
are as quaint and curious as they are numerous
and varied. For this purpose every time an 1
every country-almost every district of every
country-has hsd
ITS OWN CHARMS AND SPELLS
peculiar TO itself, and they have furnished an
almost inexhaustibIstheme to folk poets and
compilers OF folk lore.
Those of Scotland have been most graphically
described by that greatest of all poets of the
people. Robert Gurns. In his poem of Hal
low E en- he has given US a most vivid account
of more than half a score of Hallow Eve charms
and spells peculiar to the Scottish peasantry.
In q very old BOOK of folk lore called '.Ye
True Arte to Read Ye Future found the fol-
lowing: IF a maid would know name of We
man she is TO marry, let her on All Hailow Even
steal out to lime kiln and throw therein clue
of blue yarn, still holding to ye other end.
Presently ye end in ye kiln will be sharply
pulled. Then ye maid must say. Who holds?'
Whereupon ye voice of her future husband will
pronounce his name-both ye christian and We
sur name" The only obstacle to the successful
performance of this spell is the difficulty of
finding an old lime kiln, but as lime klns will be
IN great demand among our young women when
the important statement made in the above
paragraph becomes generally known, ane
demand for any article in this country Is speed
ily met by al abundant supply, the number of
lime kilns will doubtless soon be largely aug
mented TO the great delight of anxious match
making manlmss and their dutifuI offspring.
Water. nuts and apples bear prominent part
IN the spells and charms of Hallow Eve. a
quaint old book of charms, published in Eden
burg in 1880, entitled "Old Father Times Bundle
of Faggots Newly Bound Up declares that an
infalliole means OF getting n view of your fut-
ure husband or wife IS to go to bed on Hallow
Eve with glass of water, in which small
silver of wood has been placed, standing on
tab by your bedside. In the night JON Will
dream of falling from bridge into river and
being rescued by your futrre wife or husband
whom you viii see as distinctly as though
viewed with waking eyes. This charm Is thus
alluded to By the English poet Gay:
Last HEllow Eve longed my love to see,
And tried spell to call her up to me.
With wood and water standing BY my side