Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-25
FASHIONABLE AGAIN
Quite Correct to Invoke the
Fairies Help.
HALLOWEEN TRICKS
SHEET AND PILLOW CASE PARTY
IS AMUSING.
How to Learn Your Fate in Num-
Der of Odd
Ways.
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star
All old things come into fashion again If
you wait long enough Halloween now re-
ceves fashionable sanction-not that SEN
sible folk care, who have always had a fine
time on the last day of October. But 1t
Is interesting to know that the ghostly
celebrations will be more widespread this
year than usual
Although often neglected In modern prac-
tice, the most essential part of the Hal
loween ritual consists in the lighting of a
bonfire In front of the house at nightfall
Such practice is hardly possible in a
city street, but in village towns the vigil
of Hallownas, the eve of All Saints day
is often kept by the light of blazing bon
fire.
But, although ritually less correct, to
young folks. the most important celebra-
tons are the parties to play old-fashioned
games and, in various ways, to learn their
fate from the fairies For on Halloween,
as all the world knows the fairies are all
| uncommonly good tempered and propitious.
Ghosts, too, abound in hitherto unhaunted
places on the last night of October, but
even they are in their mildest moods
The old-fashoned sheet and pillow ca Sc
party is a favorable form of Halloween en-
tertainment among the young folks. Each
guest C-.rlves at the home of the hostess
wrapped in a sheet and disguised by a pill
low case his head. Two holes leave
room for the mock ghost to see but he
must neither laugh nor speak.
The hostess, also CARRIED In sheet and
pillow case, stands In the hall dimly lighted
with Jack-o'-lanterns and bows low to
each guest as he arrives. She does not
which they are to 60
All about the dlmly lighted rooms the
specters stand until every one has arrived
and the hostess motions them to follow. her
She leads them through dark passages and
either up creaky stairs to an attic or down
into the cellar, where, in a morgue- like
cave, fortune teller awaits their arrival
Each one In turn learns his or her fate from
the old woman and Is asked to back down
or up the stairs If they wish the secrets
just told them to come true.
Just before supper the ghosts are per-
mitted to depart and appear, reincarnated
In the persons of up-to-date young folks.
Apple Ducking.
The old apple-ducking party is still in
vogue, but not so much so as 1t was in the
days Of our grandmothers.,i 1t Is consider
ed, among effete moderns, too strenuous a
form OF amusement to rescue floating apples
from tub by the aid Of the teeth only
1t Is more popular to lean over the back of
chair with fork in the mouth and while
The apples float about in the water, to try
to spear one.
The old fashion of naming the Ynnles and
counting the seeds first came into common
practice at Halloween parties. The guests
name each others apples with the name
of a person of the opposite sex and when
the seeds are taken out the owner of the
apple counts them with the old rhyme
one love; two, love; three love- they
say; four, l love with all my heart; five,
is cast away; six he loves: seven she
loves; eight, both love- nine, he comes; ten,
he tarries; eleven, he courts; twelve. he
marr1es' To make this come true the
seeds must be eaten, regardless of appendi-
citis.
An old game something like bean bags is
played on Halloween by placing three hol-
lowed pumpkins in a row at one end of a
room and throwing walnuts into them.
Each player Is given a walnut to throw
into one of the pumpkins. which contain
dirty water, clean water and no water at
all. The players do not know which is
which, but If he or she throws into the
dlrty-Water pumpkin their life partner will
be poor; If the nut falls into the one with
clean water rich mate awaits the player
and If 1t falls into the pumpkin with no
water at all the person who threw it is
doomed to life of single blessedness In
the event that none of the pumpkins Is hit,
second and third trials are given Failing
to hit pumpkin In three trials player is
bound to have mysterious and very event.
full life.
Need Imagination.
A strong imagination Is necessary for the
girl who attempts, by Halloween method,
to see the face of her future husband Our
grandmothers used to say that If they went
into dark room on Halloween and, letting
fall their hair about their shoulders, brush
ed 1t while standing before mirror repeat
ing the Lords prayer backward, they would
see their future husbands face. The up
to-date girl wants some more substantial
wi hn
there Is another choice. A four-leaved clo-
yer pinned on the door on Halloween is sure
to make he first man who enters by that
door on the following day the husband of
the girl who pinned 1t there
The small boys idea that he must break
things which do not belong to him, knock
down fences. run away with loose wagons
and upset the neighbors' flower pots, as
well as to throw corn and other missiles at
peoples windows originated with a fairy
story, In olden days in Scotland the fairies
We're supposed to have done all these
things, SO today young America takes Il
upon himself to keep the custom in vogue
and turn fairy. Heartless policemen never
seem to appreciate the fact that fairies are
non-arreStable.