European immigrants poured into our county in the 1800’s and the
1900’s, and brought their Halloween customs with them. For many, harvest was a
last ditch effort for young maidens to find a husband. This is the strangest
and funniest custom I have read.
At midnight on Halloween, the unmarried lady would walk upstairs
BACKWARD. She carried a lighted candle, a thimble full of salt, and a mirror.
She counted the strands of her hair as she went (with what free hands?!) At the
top landing, she swallowed the salt, and
looked over her left shoulder into the mirror. If no male face stared back at
her, she would not marry till next Halloween.
“After the dead are raised up, we’re past
the marriage business.
As it is with angels now, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with
God.”
Mark 12
19 comments:
That sound a but dicey
Swallowed a thimble full of salt? That is a lot of salt to swallow! What a strange custom.
That is a strange one. I wonder how many young ladies tripped going up the stairs backwards trying to carry all that stuff and count the strands of hair.
Good job I do not have to do this, I could see it being a disaster, I have a job coming down the stairs front ways these days, lol
Briony
x
"At midnight on Halloween, the unmarried lady would walk upstairs BACKWARD. She carried a lighted candle, a thimble full of salt, and a mirror. She counted the strands of her hair as she went (with what free hands?!) At the top landing, she swallowed the salt, and looked over her left shoulder into the mirror..."
People had a lot of free time back then.
Something tells me our free time wasted staring at phones is a big improvement on walking upstairs backwards in the dark while counting hair.
;-)
this is all new to me, and I am thinking most of them fell down the stairs and never married. LOL... you know I LOVE THE FLAMES because I DO!!!
Oh, this is something new I heard for the first time.. sounds kind of difficult to get married then, walking backwards on the stairs.. :)
Walking backward upstairs with a lighted candle. What could go wrong? A strange custom indeed.
Glad you liked my fairy door Ginny! There are lots of them on Amazon, so I hope you found one you liked.
Very interesting. I had not heard of this traditon before.
That does sound very strange custom! It would be very difficult to walk upstairs backward..I would fall haha. And...if a male face stares back at me in the mirror at midnight, I would scream! :-):-)
I wonder how many maidens tripped causing houses to burn down.
GOODNESS!!
Yikes! That sounds bizarre.
Holy Cow.... I had never read about that tradition before..... Interesting for sure!!!!!!
Thanks for sharing.
Hugs,
Betsy
Oh Geez.......Whew, I'm thankful that I found my sweetheart in a NORMAL way! lol. Don't you know that having to swallow the salt was enough to make you want to stay single. And what if when you looked in the mirror, you saw a face that you did not want to welcome. Interesting to know!!!
Oh dear if there was no man staring back at them. What traditions 😬
Whoa... *haha*. How funny of a tradition! Every age has them but I had never heard this one. Thanks for sharing, Ginny. Lovingly, Andrea xoxo
Ginny - where do you find all this info?
Now that's fascinating :)
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