Hello Reader,
Apparently, our ancestors had a very different definition of romance.
Today, if you want to meet someone, you might try a dating app.
A few centuries ago?
Halloween.
Because long before October 31 became costumes, candy, and arguing over whether candy corn is actually food, Halloween was apparently an excellent opportunity to figure out who you were going to marry.
And some of the methods were…
questionable.
🎃 Ye Olde Halloween Dating Advice
🔥 Set your potential husbands on fire.
Sort of.
In one Scottish tradition, a woman named hazelnuts after her suitors and put them in the fire. What happened to the nuts supposedly revealed something about the future of those relationships.
Modern dating equivalent:
Probably don’t do this.
🍎 Throw food over your shoulder.
Women tossed apple peels over their shoulders and examined the shape they made when they landed. If the peel resembled a letter, supposedly it was the initial of the man they would marry.
Modern dating equivalent:
Arguably more efficient than swiping.
🪞 Stand in a dark room and stare into a mirror.
According to one tradition, a young woman could stand before a mirror in a darkened room, holding a candle, and look for the face of her future husband reflected over her shoulder.
I’m sorry.
Your future husband is supposed to suddenly appear behind you in a dark room?
Ladies.
That is not romance.
That is Chapter One of a romantic suspense novel. Or worse, a horror novel.
🥔 Find the ring in the mashed potatoes.
In one 18th-century Irish tradition, a cook hid a ring in the Halloween mashed potatoes. Whoever found it was supposedly destined for true love.
Honestly?
Of everything we’ve discussed, this one seems safest.
Unless someone swallows the ring.
What fascinates me is that underneath all these strange traditions is something that hasn’t changed very much.
People want to know how the love story ends.
Who will I choose?
Who will choose me?
Will they stay?
Hundreds of years ago, people looked for answers in apple peels, fireplaces, and candlelit mirrors.
Now?
We open a romance novel.
Which is considerably safer.
Usually.
Although, admittedly, the people in my books aren’t particularly good at the “safer” part.
Especially on Halloween. Have you visited Mimosa Cay for Halloween yet? Masks & Murders is available on Kindle Unlimited. See how the Ivory Sands Resort celebrates the holiday.
Your turn:
You absolutely MUST use one of these methods to discover your future romantic partner.
Personally, I’m going for the potatoes.
Carbs and considerably lower odds of being murdered.
Talk soon,
Jena
