Retro Baltimore: Apple peels and mirrors: Halloween superstitions flourished in Baltimore

It's almost Halloween, a time of skeletons hung in windows and candy doled out to trick-or-treaters. But for many years in Baltimore the holiday had a romantic significance, as well. Sure, there were mischief makers -- dousing bystanders with flour was a favorite pasttime among young boys, as was rearranging planters on people's front steps. But &quot;It is also regarded by many a girl,&quot; The Sun reported in 1895, &quot;as the best time of the year to try to pierce the future and catch a glimpse of the man whom fate has destined to be her husband.&quot;That's right. The vexing, age-old question of &quot;Whom will I marry?&quot; could be answered on Hallow's Eve.The link between Halloween and romance seems to have come from the ancient Celtic tradition. Celts honored &quot;in-between times,&quot; when it was believed the barriers separating the Otherworld from everyday life got very thin. The most important &quot;in-between time&quot; came Nov. 1, at the festival of Samhain, marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter.It was this time of year when one was most likely to spot a ghost walking through the streets, get kidnapped by a fairy or catch a glimpse of the future -- with the help of special tools, of course.Deciding between two lovers? According to one Celtic tradition popular in Batimore, you could place two nuts on a hot stove and name them after two admirers. &quot;The one that remains and burns is the true and faithful lover,&quot; an article in The Sun stated, &quot;while the other, which jumps away, is the fickle and false one.&quot;Apples, too, held mystical powers. In 1906, The Sun reported that &quot;apples and apple peelings are greatly in demand,&quot; with young women using them as oracles. The secret was to peel an apple in one long piece, then to throw it over the left shoulder. When it falls, it will give the initial of one's beloved-to-be.Another article states that women could eat the apple and expect her lover's face to appear in a mirror -- &quot;or she might see her own face shrouded for the grave!&quot; In the early 1900s, of course, the idea of dying unmarried may have been more frightening than seeing an actual ghost.

Retro Baltimore: Apple peels and mirrors: Halloween superstitions flourished in Baltimore

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