Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: chestnuts

"Hallowe'en. Uncertainly. Hope. Despair. Happy ever after. Ellen H. Clapsaddle. Int. Art Pub. Co. 1909." In a Halloween posting about Pumpkins and Postcards and Portents–Oh My! , Mikaela Taylor of Middlebury College explains that the illustration on this postcard reflects a Halloween custom that involved throwing chestnuts in a fire: "Anthropomorphized nuts, paired off with the titles 'Uncertainty,' 'Hope,' 'Despair,' and 'Happy Ever After,' represent the practice of interpreting the behavior of chestnuts in a fire. Those participating would assign two chestnuts to a couple and observe whether the chestnuts burned together, jumped apart in the flame, crackled loudly, or came together. A couple was said to live a long happy life together if their corresponding chestnuts burned brightly and quietly next to each other, or their relationship would end in disaster if they crackled contentiously and popped in different directions."

Oh You Chestnut! When is a door not a door? When it's a-jar!! Your ancient ones are welcome. May they never seem new to us. "Chestnut," of course, can refer to an old, stale story or joke. See chestnut (joke) in Wikipedia and old chestnut in Wiktionary. Some nuttiness for the Weird Vintage Postcards group. See also: Oh You Lemon!