The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-10-31
How TO Celebrate Halloween.

Halloween, the last day of Octo-
ber has lost none of it's prestige as
| q holiday, and while it is rarely
made an event in the cities, it is
still great country holiday, de-
voted to farm frolics and games.
There are not many young folks who
do not look forward with pleasurable
anticipation to nuts and apples and
mischief on the 3lst of October, but
few could give any accurate account
of its origin and true significance.
All Hallow Even, or Hallow Eve,
is so called because it is the night
preceding All Hallowmas, or All
Saints Day. which is November l,
and is observed by the Roman
Catholic, Protestant Episcopal and
| Lutheran churches in honor of all the
saints.
There is no night in the year which
has been invested by popular imagi-
nation with a more peculiar charac
ter than October 81, or Hallow Eve.
There is nothing in the church OBJ
| servance of the ensuing day of All
Saints calculated to give rise to such
remarkable ideas as are associated
with the night, or to such singular
| sports and customs as are practiced
upon it's annual recurrence. That
supernatural influence then prevails
is generally accepted superstition.
1t is said that all devils and witches
are abroad, and the fairies are said
also to hold high carnival.
| There is no date in the whole
twelve months around which cluster
so many popular superstitions. 1t is
impossible to trace accurately the
origin of these, but since they are
wholly devoid of any religious char
acter, they would seem clearly, to-
gether with all the other associations
connected with the occasion, to be
relics Of pagan times.
Nnts have borne a prominent part,
as they will continue to do, in the
festivities of Halloween.
| In the sacrifice of nuts propitious
omens are sought touching matri-
mony. Two or three nuts are placed
in the fire and named for two or three
OF the sweethearts of the young man
or woman who put them there If
they be still and burn together it
signifies a happy marriage or hope
full love. If, on the contrary, the
nuts touch or fly apart, the sign is
unpropitious.
Another custom is somewhat SINH
lar to this. Young women anxious
to know il their lovers are faithful
put three nuts upon the bars of the
crate, naming each nut for lover.
Ii a nut cracks or jumps, the lover
for whom it is named will prove I'M
faithful, but if it quietly burns or
blazes he loves and is true to the girl
who is making the trial.
Nuts, however, are far from mon
opolizing Halloween customs. APP
pies contend vigorously with them
for supremacy Everyone knows
what capital sport it is to let num-
Der of them float in a water tub and
have party of blindfolded young
sters, or oldsters. either, try to seize
them in their mouths while both
hands are tied behind their backs.
Another familiar custom is for a
young girl Ito take the skin of an ap-
pie. which she has pared, and after
swinging it three times around her
head, to throw it upon the ground,
where it is believed to present the
semblance of the first letter of her
future husbands name.
| A method of Determining the con-
stancy of lovers, praoticed many
times by every American girl of the
present day, and by her mother and
grandmother before her, is to take
two wet apple seeds, name each for
lover, and place them one upon
each cheek or each eyelid. The one
which drops off first is falthless,
while the other is true. Another
very old apple spell pertaining to
Halloween is to eat an apple before
mirror at midnight in a room apart
from all other persons, lighting
oneself by solitary candle held in
one hand. Before the apple is
finished the face of the future hus-
band or wife will peer over your
| shoulder.