Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: customs

A small Victorian-era Christmas card featuring a fairy and flowers. The verse on the card appears in J. S. Ogilvie, compiler, The Album Writer's Friend: Comprising More Than Three Hundred Choice Selections of Poetry and Prose, Suitable for Writing in Autograph Albums, Valentines, Birthday, Christmas, and New Year Cards (1881), p. 60. A Merry Christmas Christmas comes, let every heart In Christmas customs bear its part: The old be young, the sad be gay And smiles chase every care away.

A Halloween postcard addressed on the other side to "Miss Bertha Duncan, Cresson, Penna.," and postmarked in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on October 24, 1912. Handwritten message: "This card is a little soon for Halloween but I will send it anyhow. Aquilla." Printed on the back: "Printed in Saxony 0624." In a candlelit room at midnight on Halloween, a young woman gazes into a mirror through the steam from a cauldron so she can catch a glimpse of her future husband. For other Halloween postcards with a mirror-gazing theme, see: -- Halloween Greeting—I Gaze in the Mirror My Future There to See -- Halloween Greetings—Look Out for Ghosts -- Wishing You a Lucky Halloween

This is the season the maidens dream Things of future unforeseen. Dream sweet dreams, oh! ladies fair; But of the future have a care! A postcard addressed on the other side to my grandmother, "Miss Annie Sturtz, Fairhope Boswell, Pa." (I'm not exactly certain where my grandmother lived at the time and why Fairhope was crossed out and Boswell written in). There are two postmarks--one from Somerset, Pa., and another from Fairhope, Pa.--both dated Oct. 29, 1908. The handwritten message on the back of the card is "Annie taking warning. B." My grandmother evidently didn't heed the warning from the unnamed "B." and married my grandfather a year later.

"O, is my true love tall and grand? O, is my sweetheart bonny?" Mirrors , cakes , apple peels , and chestnuts (see below) have all figured in the Halloween fortune-telling games depicted on early twentieth-century postcards. So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I found this postcard by Ellen H. Clapsaddle , which suggests that young women could use cabbages (or kales ) to foretell what kind of husband–tall and grand? bonny?–they might marry. In a discussion about Pumpkins and Postcards and Portents–Oh My! , Mikaela Taylor of Middlebury College explains how picking a cabbage from the garden could predict a woman's romantic future: "If the selected cabbage or kale was difficult to unearth, it denoted difficulty in a relationship. Kale with clumps of dirt stuck to the roots signified a rich husband, and the size, shape, and taste of the kale foretold the physical attributes and personality of a future spouse." Ellen Clapsaddle illustrated a number of other prognosticating postcards like this one. For another example, see Halloween Chestnuts—Uncertainly, Hope, Despair, Happy Ever After .

Postmarked South Amboy, N.J., Oct. 8, 1909, and addressed to Miss E. E. Isenberg, R.F.D. No. 1, Box 17, Hollidaysburg, Pa. Handwritten message: "South Amboy, Oct. 8th. Dear Elda, We were all to New York yesterday. Had a nice time, went to the Hippodrome , the day was fine. I looked about plume [feathers for hats; see plume hunting ]--you can do better in Altoona. Do not forget to meet me at Frankstown on Monday eve at [the] five [o'clock] train. You can come in buggy. Mama." In this Halloween postcard by illustrator Bernhardt Wall , a young woman is tossing a long apple peel over her shoulder, believing that the peel will fall to the floor in the shape of a letter that will reveal the first letter of her future husband's name (strangely, a number of peels that spell "Hallowe'en" are floating in the background). This apple peeling practice is one of a number of Halloween games and rituals that were depicted on postcards published in the early twentieth century.

Hallowe'en Pranks Halloween is sure to be Tonight your love you shall see. Another early "Hallowe'en Pranks" postcard published by the Stecher Lithographic Company used the same illustration but had a different rhyme: "This pumpkin face with merry gleam, / Will light your way on Hallowe'en."

"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."

Postmark on the back of this postcard: Worcester, Mass., Oct. 30, 1909. Addressed to: Miss Ora Bickford, New Gloucester, Maine, R.F.D. no. 1. Message: "With best wishes for a happy Hallowe'en. Love, Elva." "A formerly widespread tradition held that young women gazing into a mirror in a darkened room (often on Halloween) could catch a glimpse of their future husband's face in the mirror--or a skull personifying Death if their fate was to die before they married." This explanation of what the women in this postcard is doing appears in Wikipedia's article on scrying , which is defined as "the practice of looking into a translucent ball or other material with the belief that things can be seen, such as spiritual visions, and less often for purposes of divination or fortune-telling." Cupid's presence in this postcard is somewhat puzzling, but the publisher, L. R. Conwell, also included Cupid in at least one other Halloween postcard. See The Joys of Halloween Be Yours . See below for additional examples of early twentieth-century postcards that depict mirror-gazing and other Halloween fortune-telling activities.

Postcard addressed on the back to Earl Elliot, Douglassville, Pa., and postmarked at Douglassville, Pa., Oct. 31, 1906. The handwritten message on the front is "Greetings for the day," and the initials "L.U."--presumably those of the sender--appear in a number of places on the front, including on the wall next to the fireplace. The clock strikes midnight on Halloween as a woman gazes into a fire and children bob for apples in a wash tub and on a string. Jack-o'-lanterns form a border around the scene, and ghostly figures hover in the message box at the bottom. The woman in front of the fireplace may actually be playing a fortune-telling game involving three nuts, which she has named after three of her suitors. After placing the three nuts in the fire (I think the nuts are visible here on the top of the grate at the front of the fireplace), she watches to see how they burn. The following poem, which appeared in 1900 in The Jolly Hallowe'en Book , by Dorothy M. Shipman, p. 68, describes the practice. The Test of the Nuts I've named three nuts and placed them Side by side on the grate, The one which cracks is unfaithful, The lover I know I should hate. The one which blazes with brilliant fire, Tells of high regard, 'tis said, But the one which burns with a steady flame Names the man whom I shall wed.

Sent to Mrs. Nell Frishour, Dayton, Oreg., and postmarked Portland, Ore., Oct. 31, 1909, with the message: "Look out for ghosts tomorrow night. E.W."

When I gaze in the mirror My future there to see, I wish that I could see you there, How happy I would be!

"Hold everything. Wish you were with us this Christmas just to enjoy the upholding of old traditions and customs."

This early postcard evidently depicts the custom associated with barmbrack , which is a cake "traditionally served in Ireland on Halloween, in which symbolic objects (a ring, for example) have been baked." Wikipedia provides additional details: " Barmbrack is the centre of an Irish Halloween custom. The Halloween Brack traditionally contained various objects baked into the bread and was used as a sort of fortune-telling game. In the barnbrack were: a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth, a small coin (originally a silver sixpence) and a ring. Each item, when received in the slice, was supposed to carry a meaning to the person concerned: the pea, the person would not marry that year; the stick, would have an unhappy marriage or continually be in disputes; the cloth or rag, would have bad luck or be poor; the coin, would enjoy good fortune or be rich; and the ring, would be wed within the year."