Heigh-Ho for HalloweenThe Heigh-Ho for Halloween book I have lacks the dust jacket but I found it at Half Price books for $12.00 earlier this year. Was happy to snap it up!
There's a chapter on Halloween, "About Halloween," and then the book is divided into sections: stories, poems, plays, games, and parties. The last chapter is "Halloween Today."
The chapter on games features games with apples, games with nuts, guessing games, games with stunts, foretelling the future games, dutch doll, and a jack o' lantern dance.
Here are a few games:
Apple-Snapping
A dime is stuck into the cheek of an apple, the apple is tied to a string which is suspended from the ceiling, and with hands clasped in back of them the players, two at a time, try to bite the dime from the apple. The one who succeeds in biting the part of the apple containing the dime wins.
Apple Fortunes
An apple is pared without breaking the paring, then the long skin of the apple is tossed over the left shoulder. The paring is supposed to tell the name of the future husband (or wife) by forming the first letter of his name.
The Looking-Glass Husband
A very old game of superstition is that in which the boy or girl walks through a dimly lighted room backward, holding a mirror before the face and eating an apple at the same time. If the charm works the image of the person's future mate is supposed to be seen in the glass.
Jenn:)
I'm curious, one of the games that mentioned was called Dutch doll, can you explain it?
ReplyDeleteIt all sounds great... I too would love to hear more about the dances..
ReplyDeleteGreat find and a great price! Another one to add to the "watch for" list.
ReplyDeleteCool games! The apple one sounds like fun!
ReplyDelete@Len - the Dutch doll apparently involved the dressing of a player with a skirt tied over legs sticking up in the air, ankles are the neck of the doll, feet are the head. A scarf is added for a collar and a mask or false face is given with a cap or hat to complete the head and then a cape added. People are called in to ask questions answered with either a yes or a no. If no the Dutch doll sways from side to side as if shaking the head, if yes then sways backward and forward. Then someone in the know asks the Dutch doll to come to life and the player sits up bring the feed down with a bang and Dutch doll is no more.
ReplyDeleteKind of strange isn't it ;-)
Kathy - the jack o' lantern dance involves a person inside a costume and it describes how to make the costume and to music they dance a mechanical looking dance which will appear to be funny. Then at the end the dancers reveal themselves.
ReplyDeleteJenn:)
Thanks Jenn ... some of those vintage traditions seem odd. But interesting to hear about.. makes you wonder how odd our traditions will seem in the future!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I completely understand the dutch doll game...it does sound very strange and very spooky!
ReplyDelete