Five Odd Halloween Traditions from the Victorian Era
by Evelyn Maguire
From leeching to sprinkling arsenic in beauty powder to displaying celery as a sign of wealth, Victorian-era traditions are nothing if not odd (at least to the modern person). So Halloween-time for the Victorians, as you might expect, was a holiday rife with its own strange practices and beliefs. Halloween itself, a Celtic holiday which began nearly 2,000 years ago, was brought over to America in the 19th century by Irish and Scottish immigrants. Once there, the original traditions gave way to Victorian interpretations. Here are five Victorian Halloween traditions that might surprise you!
- Pumpkins were not just for carving
Though Victorians did carve pumpkins — along with other gourds, such as turnips — pumpkins were also used as a means of party invitations. If a carved jack-o-lantern arrived on your doorstep, it was often accompanied by a note, inviting you to a Halloween party to begin “at the witching hour.”
2. Attempting to divine future marital success
What’s spookier than matrimony? I jest. Kind-of. But the Victorians agreed: games intending to divine who your future spouse would be (or if you were doomed to spinster/bachelor-hood) were a favorite Halloween tradition. Though there were many such party games, one that stands out is the Needle Cake. A cake would be baked with a single needle/thimble, and a ring/dime inside. A needle or thimble in your served slice foretold a single life, whereas a dime or ring foretold marital prosperity.
3. A fast-burning ghost story
Another favorite Halloween party game (which sounds right up my alley) is to gather in a circle, each with a twig, and to take turns telling a joint, scary story. To begin, one would light the tip of their twig on fire, and tell their spooky story for as long as it took for the flame to go out. Once the twig had burned, the next person would light theirs and continue the story until the entire circle had contributed. Nothing brings out your creative best like the threat of burnt fingers!
4. All tricks, no treats
Illusions, pranks, spooks and scares were the name of the game for Victorian Halloween. Shaking someone’s hand to discover a glove filled with sawdust was one of the tamest Victorian pranks. Teenagers and children were known to spend the night of Hallow’s Eve stringing ropes across sidewalks to trip pedestrians, tying the doorknobs of neighboring apartments together, smearing black paint on new buildings, and even coating well-dressed passers-by with bags of flour. Though Mischief Night is still honored in many parts of America, the pranks just aren’t what they used to be!
5. Morbid Costuming
Though now you’ll see Halloween costumes ranging from firefighters to astronauts to celebrities, Victorian Halloween costumes were nearly all related to the supernatural. Vampires, witches, ghosts, skeletons, and devils were popular choices. This choice largely stemmed from the Celtic idea that on the night of Halloween, the veil between the living and the dead was at its thinnest… (Cue the creepy music)
For more spooky Halloween fun, check out what’s happening at the Physick Estate in October!
Evelyn Maguire (she/her) is on the Digital Marketing team at Cape May MAC. She is an MFA candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
