Newfoundland Halloween Magic

Turnip Jack o’Lanterns

Last Valentine’s Day I shared a collection of old Newfoundland superstitions, spells and charms designed to find love. Some of them were a bit… umm… dark.

At the same time, I encountered some superstions and spells, again mostly about finding love, that were designed to work exclusively on Halloween.

Now seemed like a good time to share them.

Blindfolds & Babies

This superstition was recorded in Current Superstitions: Collected from the Oral Tradition of English Speaking Folk by Fanny Dickerson Bergen (1896).

It’s from a section of the book on Halloween superstitions. I’ve embedded Bergen’s text below. In short you can divine your true love’s name on Halloween if you can secure a bowl used by a newborn, wear a blindfold and are good at solving word jumbles.

Nuts for Each Other

Walnuts (edit), Biodiversity Heritage Library, public domain

According to a tradition related in Fables, Faries and Folklore of Newfoundland by Alice Lannon and Mike McCarthy, if couple wanted to know if they were destined for a happy future together they need only too two walnuts into the fire on Halloween night. If the walnuts burned side-by-side, it foretold of years of contentment. If the walnuts rocked and flew apart as they burned it foretold of a stormy relationship.

Nut Cracking Night

This custom was likely carried to Newfoundland from the British Isles where October 31st was sometimes referred to a Nut Cracking Night — a night to sit around the fire roasting nights and telling stories and fortunes.

Apples in the Mirror

All Is Vanity, C. Allan Gilbert, public domain

Also recounted in Fables, Faries and Folklore, if a person wanted to see the image of their true love’s face they needed only to wait until Halloween night. Supplies were minimal — an apple, a candle and a mirror.

The person needed to go to a dark room, light the candle and sit in front of a mirror and begin to eat the apple. As they were eating the face of their true love would appear in the mirror, as if looking over their shoulder.

Creepy… but not wholly unique to Newfoundland, as evidenced by the following Halloween greeting card from the New York Public Library Collection.

Snap Apple Night

Apples have a long history with Halloween and, in parts of Newfoundland (and Europe) October 31st was called Snap Apple Night.

Even if I reflect on my own childhood — which I’d like to think wasn’t that long ago — apples played a role in halloween festivities. Bobbing for apples in a bowl of water was a frequent (and gross) halloween activity, as well as, trying to take a bite from an apple suspended from a string.

Halloween Magic

I’m sure this is only a thin slice of the Halloween magic that early European settlers practiced. If you know of any others, feel free to drop them in the comments.

• Sources and Further Reading

  1. Current Superstitions, Fanny Dickerson Bergen, 1896

  2. Halloween - A Night of Fate, Strange Ago

  3. All Hallow’s Eve, The Muse, 1979

  4. Fables, Fairies and Folklore of Newfoundland, Lannon & McCarthy, 1991