What do you think of when Halloween rolls around? Spooky decorations? Disappearing candy stashes in your cupboard? Horror films? Children wandering the streets dressed as animated characters? While some Halloween traditions have remained consistent, most have altered with time and cultural shifts. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the ever-subtle Victorians and those who came before celebrated Halloween a little differently than those of us in the 21st Century.
An effigy of Guy Fawkes is burnt on Bonfire Night, 1952. Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Halloween is a holiday without a direct ancestor. It is linked to Samhain, Guy Fawkes Day, All Hallows Eve and any number of harvest festivals celebrated during the transition between summer and winter. The name comes from a compounded form of All-Hallows-Eve, the night of the Christian calendar that precedes All Saints Day. The significance of this time of year is often attributed to its seasonal transition: as the lively summer months come to an end, deathly winter creeps upon the world. In many cultures, this means that the usually distinct line between life and death is temporarily broken down, allowing spirits and creatures to cross over and impact our world. This makes the night of Halloween an especially fruitful time for spiritual endeavours. Prophecy, table-tipping, or the burning of harvested crops are just some of the ways living mortals have tried to participate in this night of ghostly activity. (i)
So how would a Victorian celebrate a Hallowed Eve? Instead of going door-to-door, Victorians would throw lavish parties full of pomp and intricate rituals that involved everyone. While there were still costumes, tricks, games, and spooky stories, the main focus of the night was matchmaking. Hopeful singles would come together to divine their future spouses through poems, faces in mirrors, or by eating the Irish bread Barmbrack, which would contain items that the receiver could use to predict upcoming events. For instance, a ring meant you were soon to be married while a lump of clay was a shocking way to discover you were about to die (ii).
Decorations often included harvest colours such as gold and red which mimicked the apples and nuts served as snacks. High-society ladies would pride themselves on their creativity, crafting unique invitations and glamorous entrances. Some tried to include the popular trend of carved turnips known as “Jack of the Lantern” or Jack-o-Lanterns, based on the story of Stingy Jack, a man who tried to trick the devil and was cursed to enter neither heaven nor hell. He instead eternally wanders the earth with an ember trapped in a turnip as his only light. This tradition began in Ireland and Scotland, morphing into the candle-filled pumpkins we know today. Other traditions that have now become popular through Irish immigration include the wearing of Halloween masks. They were originally known as Fiddle Faces, worn to ward off spirits or to be anonymous as one wreaked mischief. (iii, iv)
Victorians were also rather fond of scary stories. Games and rituals for parties were pulled from poems such as Robert Burns’ “Hallowe’en” and William Wordsworth’s “Love Lies Bleeding” (based on the plant of the same name) or short stories such as James Joyce’s “Clay.” When they wrote their own stories, especially those placed in women’s magazines, the tales often bordered on the romantic with excerpts such as "Seed-time and Harvest," "If I Were a Man I'd Shoot Myself," or "The Hallow-e'en Sensation at Gov'ner Dering's." (iv)
Victorian Halloween Game card: Library of Congress
A face in the mirror would show your future spouse, a skull meant you were to die before being married
Patricia Stafford “Traditional Irish Barmbrack” Bigger Bolder Baking
Jack O Lantern below was traditionally carved in (Fintown) Baile na Finne, County Donegal Gaelltacht, c. 1903 National Museum of Ireland .
Halloween Masks called Fiddle Faces at the National Museum of Ireland
After the turn of the century, the universal nature of the night shifted. While there has always been plenty of trickery to be found, especially in youthful boys, the handing out of candy did not historically accompany Halloween celebrations. Trick-or-Treating is a recent North American fad based on older European rituals of going door-to-door asking for food or pennies. It was reintroduced in the 1930s as an attempt to curb excess vandalism --stories include coating chapel seats with molasses, exploding pipe bombs, smearing the walls of new houses with black paint, or using bags of flour to attack well-dressed folks on streetcars -- and only became popular after the release of the 1952 short film “Trick or Treat” featuring Donald Duck. (v) The film was effective because it came after the end of WWII sugar rations, convincing adults that they would be terrorized if they were stingy with their treats. This shift towards a “child safe” version of Halloween points to a systematic reimagining of ancient traditions. Instead of being a part of everyday activities, including death rituals, children were now being protected from ideas that were considered “adult” in nature, such as the scary spirits that came out on Halloween night.
A 1908 postcard depicts Halloween mischief. Image courtesy of The New York Public Library Digital Collections
1952 Walt Disney Poster of “Trick or Treat”
So, if you want to do a bit of history-bounding and celebrate the season like a Victorian, forego the usual Trick-or-Treating and bake some Barmbrack. Invite your single friends and make a night of dressing up, carving turnips, eating apples, and playing games inspired by 18th century poems. And, if your children get too rowdy, just remind them that the Jack-o-Lanterns placed outside are to ward off both gamblers and the devil: that should do the trick. Happy Hallowe’en!
-Alexa Nicolle, Intern Curator
Notes
(i) Jokinen, Thomas. n.d. “Touching the Dead: Spooky Winnipeg.” Hazlitt. https://hazlitt.net/feature/touching-dead-spooky-winnipeg
(ii) Stafford, Patricia. 2019. “Traditional Irish Barmbrack.” Bigger Bolder Baking. https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/traditional-irish-barmbrack/
(iii) National Museum of Ireland. n.d. “Irish Halloween Traditions.” Pilgrimage in Medieval Ireland. https://pilgrimagemedievalireland.com/tag/turnip-carvings/
(iv) Bannatyne, Lesley. 2017. “When Halloween was All Tricks and No Treats.” Smithsonian. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-halloween-was-all-tricks-no-treats-180966996/
(v) History.com. 2019. How Trick-Or-Treating Became a Halloween Tradition. N.p.: History.com.
Bannatyne, Lesley. n.d. “Halloween in Victorian America.” Lesley Bannatyne Articles. https://www.iskullhalloween.com/victorianhalloween.html
Laudier, Nicole. 2019. “4 Frighteningly Fun Facts about Victorian Halloween.” London Heritage Foundation. https://heritagelondonfoundation.ca/2019/10/16/4-frighteningly-fun-facts-about-victorian-halloween/#:~:text=The%20Victorians%20loved%20their%20sweets,similar%20to%20today's%20candy%20apples
Poems and Short Stories
Burns, Robert. “Hallowe’en” https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1279/1279-h/1279-h.htm#link2H_4_0084
Joyce, James. “Clay” https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2814/pg2814-images.html
“Seed-time and Harvest” from Ragged School Union magazine, Jan. 1849-Dec. 1875; London Vol. 3, Iss. 25, (Jan 1851): 5-7.
“If I Were a Man I'd Shoot Myself” from "By Cupid's Trick. A Parlor Drama for All Hallowe'en," Wilder, Griffith. Godey's Lady' s Book, November, 1885, pp. 500-501.
Church, Ella Rodman. "Through a Looking-Glass," Godey's Lady's Book, October, 1880, p. 346.
Train, Elizabeth Phipps. "The Hallow-e'en Sensation at Gov'ner Dering's," Godey' s Lady's Book, October, 1888, p. 280