Love and Halloween

When people think of romance and holidays today, Valentine's Day or even Christmas probably come to mind. They probably do not think of Halloween. In the days of yore, however, this was not the case. There were several romantic superstitions associated with the holiday in which one could divine who they would marry, when they might marry, and so on. For those familiar with the customs associated with Halloween, it might come as no surprise that one of these divination rituals involved cabbages. The cabbage has long been associated with Halloween. One of the many names of Mischief Night, the night before, on, or around Halloween when boys would play pranks was "Cabbage Night." The name apparently came from the custom of young boys raiding cabbage patches and then hurling them at houses or doorways. Regardless of what young boys did with cabbages, young women had other uses for them. The October 25, 1902 edition of The Democratic Advocate from Westminster, Maryland lists various…