Grim Grinning Ghouls come out-tomorrow!
I've been working very hard this week to get everything ready for our HALLOWE'EN SOCIAL tomorrow (Friday) night. It's been an eccentric and varied list of tasks: besides the mundane things like raking leaves and vaccuuming, I've been painting gravestones, making funereal wreaths of black blossoms and sickly ivy, looking up recipes for popcorn balls, cleaning walnut shells to hide fortunes inside (quite laborious; I don't recommend it as a hobby), researching Victorian parlour divination methods...
The last has been particularly interesting. One thing that I think I knew in some sense, just from how steeped I am in the era, but never really considered, is how ROMANTIC Hallowe'en was to the Victorians. Nearly all of the divination methods I've found have to do with finding out about one's future romances-or for the most part, the Victorians being so, well, Victorian, finding out about one's future marriage prospects. There are dozens of romantic Hallowe'en poems, several of which also include descriptions of these scrying methods, for example (an excerpt):
Last night 'twas witching Hallowe'en,
Dearest; an apple russet brown
I pared, and thrice above my crown
Whirled the long skin; they watched it keen;
Dearest, there lay the letter of your name.
Apparently a very popular Hallowe'en pastime was to pare an apple just as the writer describes, all in one long peel, then cast it away by some method (some sources say to "whirl it thrice" about one's head as the poem describes, some just to toss over the shoulder, some have a rhyme to say with it) and when it falls it is to form the shape of one's true love's initial.
But I promise, tomorrow night will not be academic. It will be all kinds of spooky fun, and I can't wait to see you all there!
And yes, folks, the party is on FRIDAY. If you show up at my house on Saturday night, I will pelt you with the rotten apples that I spent an hour picking up in my yard yesterday. No, I won't actually. I have to work on Saturday night, poor me...