Throughout the ages, people have tried to divine things about their future spouse. Here are a few strange Halloween traditions to do just that!
People want to know things about their future spouse, and they have forever. Humans are curious creatures. We also like the idea of magic and fortune-telling. Since the Celtic Druids, people have believed that October 31st is when life and death converge and spirits roam wild. Because of the magical nature of the night, it is a perfect time for fortune-telling. Women have used apples, nuts, and cabbages to determine some traits of their future spouse and if they will even marry at all. Bobbing for apples even had romantic relevance!
Learn more about the various ways women tried to learn about their future. Many traditions or methods used apples in some way!

Halloween Traditions with Apples

So, you want to learn about your future spouse and some of their character traits. Why don’t you start with a symbol of love and fertility, the apple? People have associated apples with affection for a long time, and they crop up in multiple stories from the ancient Greeks.

Bobbing for Apples

We all know what bobbing for apples is, as it is a big part of Halloween tradition. Even those who don’t go bobbing for apples see the game depicted in books. Bobbing for apples is a classic children’s game. However, at first, bobbing for apples had a romantic undertone. One version of the game was a race between everyone.

The first person to snag an apple would be the first to get married or have a happy love life, so, everyone wanted to get it first. The next version went in turns, with each person tried to bite their apple in as few tries as possible. If they got it on the first try, they and their future spouse would have love and happiness, but of they took two attempts, their love would fade away someday. And finally, if it took three tries or more, the courtship wouldn’t last, and they may die alone.

The last version was even more strange. Each woman (or man) secretly marked an apple in some way. Then, the men (or women in the reverse) bobbed for the apples, and whoever caught your apple was destined to be your spouse. Or so the story went. I would love to know how those match-ups went, because I’m sure it was amusing!

Snap Apple

Another old game with apples is Snap Apple. Our modern version of the holiday changed this tradition. Formerly, people hung apples from the ceiling with a stick poked through one side. On the other side of the pole was a burning candle. The goal was to get a bite of the apple without having hot wax dripped on them.

Eventually, it changed to just an apple. Just like bobbing for apples, there was romantic significance to the game. Once again, one bite brought fortune, two tries were not the best, and three bites were doomed love/ spinsterhood. The first person to get their apple was the first to wed.

Snap-Apple Night by Daniel Maclise

Another variation of snap apple had a hoop with various treats and other things hung on it, such as cake, candy, apples, peppers, and whatever else they wanted. Whatever the person caught with their teeth foretold an aspect of their marriage. Would their marriage be sweet and nourishing, hot and spicy, etc.?

How to Use Apples to Dream About Your Future Spouse

If you haven’t had good luck and want another way to learn about your spouse, you can always take the apple you snagged while bobbing for apples and sleep with it under your pillow. Then, you will dream about your future spouse. It also doesn’t have to be the apple you got while bobbing for apples, but it is best.

The apple from Bobbing for Apples also often had a bite already taken out of it, so I would assume it got the pillow and bed dirty. The poor mothers who had to clean us after this! I also think it would be uncomfortable to sleep with an apple under the pillow.

Peeling Apples

What will your future spouse be named, or what is their first initial, at the very least? You can find out by peeling an apple! Peeling an apple seems like a silly way to find out what your future spouse’s first initial is, but it was another popular Halloween tradition. First, you had to peel your apple all in one strip without it breaking anywhere because if it snapped, you would have bad luck with your love life.

Then, you have to throw it over your left shoulder. Sometimes, you had to carefully swing it around your head three times before throwing it over your left shoulder. Once again, if the apple peel broke, it was bad luck, so you should be careful.

Some people peeled the apple they got while bobbing for apples. After tossing the peal over your shoulder, it was hoped that the peel would fall in the shape of your future spouse’s first initial. Another way to identify your future lover’s initials is to nail the apple peel over your front door. Then you wait. The first person to walk under the apple peel would have had the same initials as your future lover.

Seeing your Spouse in a Mirror

Is your future spouse going to be good-looking? There’s one way to find out; you must see for yourself. To do this, you need a few things. First, you need a mirror. You will need a mirror in all the versions I have seen. You will also need a candle. In the first version, you need an apple sliced into nine pieces.

At midnight, enter a dark room with a lit candle and eat the apple one slice at a time while staring at the mirror. Your future spouse should appear in the mirror, looking over your shoulder to ask for the final slice. For the next version, you need an apple and a comb. You need to go and eat your apple while combing your hair by candlelight at midnight.

Your future lover should appear over your left shoulder. You can also eat only the apple or only comb/brush your hair. Either way, your future spouse should poke his/her head over your left shoulder. You must use the candle and nothing else for light. It also has to happen at midnight.

Halloween Traditions with Cabbage

Do you have any cabbage in your garden? Because if you do, you have all you need for another way to learn about your future lover. If you don’t, you could find a cabbage field. You must put on a blindfold and walk through a cabbage field. You will pull up the first one you stumble or bump into. Still blindfolded, feel your cabbage with your hands (if you want, you can remove the blindfold).

Feel the roots. If the roots are good with tons of dirt attached, you can hope for an affluent spouse. You could also feel the stalk to determine your future mate’s height and width (and maybe weight). Now, go home with your cabbage and cook it so you can learn about the disposition of your future spouse through the taste. If it is sweet and good-tasting, your future spouse will be kind and loving; however, if it is bitter, your future spouse will be sour and potentially old.

Another way you can use a cabbage is in a dish called Colcannon. Cook a ring and a button in it and serve it to your family and friends. The ring symbolizes an upcoming wedding. However, the button is unlucky, decreeing that the person who gets it will never marry. Often, cooks who worked at inns and taverns would make Colcannon to serve to their customers.

Halloween Traditions with Nuts

Are nuts related to romance in any way? They used to be! Girls would collect hazelnuts, assign a love interest to each one, and throw them into the fire. If a hazelnut burned to ashes instead of popping, the person it symbolized would be their future betrothed. Other times, the nut that burned to ashes represented a love that wouldn’t last.

Sometimes, girls assigned her name to a hazelnut and threw it in the fire with the other nuts. The nut that stayed by hers rather than bouncing away would be a good lover. At Halloween parties, there was often a chestnut hunt. The first to find the burr gets to get married first out of the group. Finally, if a woman wanted to dream about her future husband, she could eat a sugary dessert made with hazelnuts, walnuts, and nutmeg before bed.

Some ways people try to learn about their future spouse are pretty amusing. What was your favorite method of divination? What was the funniest way? Let me know in the comments! I really appreciate the comments and feedback.

To Learn More…

(and check out my sources…)

Halloween Traditions about Love…

Halloween 2023: Origins, Meaning & Traditions | HISTORY

Irish Halloween Superstitions Foretelling Romance, Love And Marriage

8 Lost Halloween Traditions That Prove the Holiday Used to be All About Getting Hitched

The Forgotten Halloween Games That Predict Who You’ll Marry—And When You’ll Die

Lost Halloween Traditions for Summoning Future Lovers

These Halloween traditions all have Irish origins

How apples were used to learn about future lovers…

The Secret, Steamy History Of Halloween Apples : The Salt : NPR

6 Ways Apples Have Been Used to Predict Love

The unexpected romantic history of bobbing for apples

How to see your future spouse in a mirror…

The Supernatural Way to See a Person’s Future Husband with an Apple & Mirror

Where I found my images…

https://www.tuckdbpostcards.org/items?q=halloween

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

Related works of mine…

Ghosts and Haunted Castles in the Middle Ages

Superstitions People Had in the Middle Ages

Other posts about Holidays…

Did People Have Holidays in the Middle Ages?

Valentine’s Poems and Love Letters in the Middle Ages

What Was Christmas Like in the Middle Ages?

If you liked this you may enjoy…

Weird Beauty Standards for Women in the Middle Ages

Purposes of Sachets and Perfume in the Middle Ages

Interesting Weapons that People Used in the Middle Ages

What Animals Were Kept in a Medieval Castle?

And last, but not least, my homepage…

lifelongago.com