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Halloween Parties

In many places the young men used to be denied the privilege of these yearly revels, but in later years they are not only permitted to attend, but are also allowed to share in the various tricks devoted especially to Halloween. History repeats itself in these affairs as well as in others of greater moment, and the customs of bobbing for apples, roasting chestnuts and walking down the cellar-stairs backwards are kept up. Among the tricks of the season not so frequently tried is that of hanging a stick from the ceiling by a cord, with a short candle on one end and an apple on the other. The apple is named, and if caught in the teeth as it swings around, the fate of the young person is decided satisfactorily.

Hot lead used to be a favorite article for these experiments, as it was poured through a wedding ring, and the form that it assumed was regarded as prophetic.

Two rivals for the favors of the same young woman decided the momentous question by placing a raisin on a string a yard long, each one taking an end of the string in his mouth, and the one who reached the raisin first by chewing up the ends as fast as possible was supposed to win. A greased needle placed in a saucer of water, on a piece of thin tissue paper, was named, and the antics it performed suggested the manners, it was said, of the one whose name it bore.

Look at the moon through a silk handkerchief that has never been washed and you will see sometimes several moons. Count them and expect as many years before marriage as you number moons.

THERE ARE OTHER DAYS NEARLY AS EVENTFUL AS HALLOWEEN. The saint's calendar is thickly sprinkled with mysterious occasions, and in parts of the Old World the girl who really wants to know has many opportunities for finding out puzzling things. Saint Catherine's Day comes on November 25. On this night if a girl walks three times around a well, or any large receptacle filled with water, repeating the lines: "A husband, Saint Catherine; A handsome one, Saint Catherine; A rich one, Saint Catherine; And soon, Saint Catherine."

Then the young man in turn goes round the well repeating the same lines, only instead of a husband say a wife. They will each see their future husband or wife reflected in the surface of the water. November has another fate day, St. Andrew's Day. Between 11 and 12 o'clock at night, if one holds a willow branch in her hand and runs three times around a house, saying: "He that is to be my good man come and grip the end," she will feel the other end of the branch jerked suddenly, and if she has courage to look around she will see the one she has invoked. On next May Day go out in the evening and catch the first snail you spy. When you have brought him in spread fresh ashes over the hearth and make him crawl over its surface. The trail that he makes will form the initials of the one about whom most young people would like to know. Put all these days down in your diary and then pin your faith to superstition.