What Were Halloween Parties Like in the Early 1900s?
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- Опубліковано 10 жов 2021
- As Halloween draws closer, you may be thinking about how you'll celebrate. But have you ever wondered what Halloween parties were like 100 years ago? Come learn with me about the Hallows Eve celebrations of yesteryear!
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Sources:
Halloween Merrymaking by Diane C. Arkins
The Book of Hallowe’en by Ruth Edna Kelley
Halloween: Romantic Art and Customs of Yesteryear by Diane C. Arkins
Black Cats and Evil Eyes by Michael O’Mara
Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne
How to Haloween like old-timey people:
1. Dress up in gay costume
2. Bite some fat cheeks at a party
3. NO LITTLE FINGER TOUCHY-TOUCHY
4. Diy decorations
This comment made me snort from laughter it's perfectly set up
XD
ive got the first and fourth going for me already
Laughter
I kinda am starting to think it's not so much about the finger as it is "don't let him touch *so much as* the tip of your little finger..." as a hyperbolic way of stressing avoiding all, even 'innocent', physical contact
Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized by the mere idea of early 1900s sandwiches.
✋
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Early 1900s "salad" was worse.
Slice bananas longways and then into shorter halves, two quarterback per person. Put three dots of mayonnaise in the flat side of each quarter. Then attached a piece of popcorn or a small marshmallow to each dot.
And don't look up Perfection Salad unless you want your ideas of perfection and life itself to succumb to your new madness.
Some of them are actually very tasty!
My Grandma hosted big parties like this when I was a kid. The themed cute food, homemade decorations and party favors. Punch with dry ice, bobbing for apples, throwing bean bags through a big ghost she cut out of wood and painted, good times. I’m glad I got to experience that as a wee one.
In Scotland we'd cover a soda or potato scone in treacle and hang it from the ceiling or door frame and the goal was to bite it with your hands held behind your back.
Sounds very similar to the Halloween parties my family threw when I was a kiddo ☺️
Woahh thats so cool. I never experienced Halloween parties as a kid.
This is my new life goal
Amazing!
Whimsy, spookiness, harvest time and nature- oh hey it's Over the Garden Wall!
This is in fact how I celebrate Halloween, and why it's my favorite holiday. Who cares about gore when you can have spooky otherworld shenanigans and homey but slightly arcane harvest rituals?
🎃 exactly
Those veggie-people invitations were definitely inspiration for Tome of the Unknown
The melon car that is shown in 2:53 is literally in the pilot episode of Over the Garden Wall
I concur. The spookiness and all the harvest vegetables and the crunchy autumn leaves are what makes Halloween for me.
thank you, i like this spooky whimsy a lot :D i think halloween is a favorite holiday at this point. i aspire to have a neat lil party like this one day. and my future room will definitely incorporate some of these vibes 😌
My best guess would be that "burned almonds" are the same dish as the german "gebrannte Mandeln". For this sugar is heated and almonds are coated in the caramel, they tase the best when eaten warm. Traditionaly you can buy them at fairs, especially in winter.
Oh i’ve had those, they’re delicious!! Alas no this recipe was just burning plain almonds in a pan haha
In Norway we also call them «brennte mandler» and we sometimes add a bit of cinnamon to it 😋 In December the whole city centre smells like it.
Basically, garrapiñadas
This makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking - that burned almonds is the safest way to pretend you're eating cyanide. (Too dark? Just me?)
@@KazRowe Excuse me, but where did you get your shirt from? it looks so cute like that whiskey grandpa formal gremlin wear. :D
This is much closer to the true Halloween vibe for me than today’s blood and gore. Enjoyed your video.
Yeah, I wish we'd go back to this version. Heck, even the Sleepy Hollow version. Just spooky stories and harvest decorations with some ghouls and goblins and cute black cats!
@@Orion_TheyThem It kinda depends how you view history. What people found scary changes over time and back then much that we find innocent or banal would have seemed far spookier.
For instance and to stick with the Halloween flavour, Burn's poem Tam o Shanter was considered pretty scary at the time it was published while today it might be seen as more quaint.
Blood and gore?? Today's Halloween feels more like Comic Con.
I like both.
@@collecticus same I really like cutesy Halloween for my house decor and then I love going to super scary haunted houses and watching super super scary movies etc!
maybe Nandor was right to call it "creepy paper", he remembers halloween parties from a century ago 😁
Oh my god hahaha, I keep quoting that together with my mom. We love wwdits!
I imagine that olives were probably one of those foods that were popular because they were seen as "exotic" in the same way that pineapples were very trendy in the Regency.
Plus if they were canned, you could have them lying around. The convenience factor of it must have been extremely appealing - and you can think about how everyone was gaga for gelatin desserts/dishes for so long, because an inconvenient and high class thing became convenient.
@@sarahwatts7152 Olives were, for some reason, also traditional during that time of year. I'm not sure why. They were a big tradition of thanksgiving until the mid-20th century
Canned olives were just as lacking in flavor then as they are now (from what the grandparents told me) and probably weren't nearly as "olivey" as we would picture them now. That being said, I love olives...just not the way they've been described in these dishes. And I think they may have been more traditional on the west coast where they were grown? But yes, they were considered exotic to all non-Italian families (unlike mine), like gorgonzola dressing was...blue cheese dressing today. My grandmother used to make literal vats of that shit. And it wasn't so skimpy on the cheese, or heavy on the mayo. That stuff nowadays is gross.
@@sarahwatts7152 yep, gelatin and mayonnaise, because the masses had refrigeration
Irish viewer here, my gran had my cousins and me doing the ‘game’ @9:44 but a bit different. If you touched a dish with a ring you would be be the first to get married, if you touched water you’d be a sailor or fisherman or whatever, if you touched soil you’d farm the land, if you touched the dish with a twig you were destined to marry someone who’d beat you, and if you got the ashes you’d be the first to die. Eventually she stopped laying out the ashes dishes after a while because that one was too macabre for her. 😁
Lol but being destined to marry someone who'd beat you wasn't.
@@boneymacaroni13 Right?? Not a lot of good options
theres something about the whimsy of old halloween that i yearn for, the simple homemade costumes of orange and black, the "mysterious" card invitations, the silly goofy songs, i wish i had an old fashioned halloween party (without the baggage and problematic charicatures of then and now)
Haven’t started watching and OBVIOUSLY your videos are top tier in info and interesting content however…. you look incredible. everything to look at in this vid *chefs kiss* you are a masterpiece
Since this day I'm going to call soup "witch's broth" exclusively
I think those sandwich options are excellent. Btw, in the early 1970s, we kids would just build haunted houses in any old room, by decorating the room weirdly, and spinning the old Disney “thrilling chilling sounds” album, the one that scared kids so effectively. I’ve continued being a Halloween lover all this time................
So have I....
I felt that at a certain age, Halloween was stolen from me. it was no longer ok to trick or treat, and not only did I not want to go to Halloween parties, no one else wanted me to either. I didn't know I was autistic, because we had to way of describing functional autistics back then. I still feel really sad about it.
I'm currently going through that right now :/. I'm trying to make the most of of it because Halloween is my favorite holiday but I just feel childish. Why must so many things be put into the box of childish!? Haha.
I felt this way too. I’m learning to reclaim the ‘childish’ parts of me or change them to something I’m comfortable with now.
It’s always okay to trick or treat. I don’t care if you’re middle aged and nearly bald, if you come to my front door on Halloween night dressed up asking for candy, you’re getting candy!
Unfortunately, that’s not likely to happen this year, since I recently moved in with my dad out in the country, but it’s a principle I will absolutely put into practice when I’m living on my own once again.
@@therealCrazyJake 👍👻🎃
I'm 42 and Australian, I celebrate Halloween every year, I get alot of people arguing it's not our tradition and I'm too old but I enjoy it and that's all that matters
I deeply appreciate your videos being captioned. Some of even the biggest creators don’t take time to make sure they have subtitles.
Very much agreed.
As someone who used to make subtitles for UA-camrs, captioning is really time-consuming and hard to do on UA-cam. It doesn't help that UA-cam doesn't allow anyone to make or edit them anymore besides the original uploader.
I've never heard of anyone adding pecans, but guava and cream cheese is honestly super yummy in pastry form and we make them a lot here! There is also a lot to be said for being able to grab a delicious slice of guava and a slice of cheese and eat it on a piece of bread so honestly I can see where they're coming from.
It is so interesting to me when you mention the "weird sandwiches", because they sound completely rational to me. Sandwiches in my family often consist of cheese and jam or marmelade. And it is a little comparable to turkey club sandwiches, I would imagine?
I think they sound quite tasty, too! Had some as a child, in fact.
One of the best sandwiches I've ever had was a take on a monte cristo with turkey, bacon, swiss, lingonberry jam, arugula, and maple syrup
The whirling stick game sounds like a great opportunity for pretty horrific injuries. Still turn-of-the-century Halloween parties sound like they’d be much more my speed than the horror obsessed celebrations we have now.
In elementary school, I used to take out books on the history of Halloween all the time. I used to think when I was grown up, everyone would throw Halloween parties like the ones you described. Alas, another disappointment of adulthood.
super late comment but it's not too late to bring it back!!
here in norway, throwing an apple peel over your shoulder to see what letter your future spouse's name starts with is still done (though never actually taken seriously, of course)
This kinda reminds me of bending the tab on soda cans while reciting the alphabet and whatever letter you get to when it pops off is what your future spouse's name starts with lol.
@@Orion_TheyThem ive also heard of a version where you pour candle wax into a bowl of water and the letter it makes is the first initial of who you'll marry
I'm not a party person, but this makes me want to host a party
The Betsy-Tacy books (Maud Hart Lovelace's autobiographical novels about her youth in the 1910s) contain some delightful descriptions of "spooky" parties like this, although I don't think they're ever explicitly Halloween parties.
I remember those! They called them “hen parties”
"burned almonds" sounds like the traditional German winter/Christmas treat of sugared roasted almonds. Very tasty.
they replied to a different comment saying this and apparently no. just plain burnt almonds.
Are you telling me Halloween was just autumn valentine's day? I love it, spooky flirting for all!
“Over the Garden Wall” makes so much more sense now 🙂
Oh there’s a girlfriend application?????
👁👄👁
Can I send you the maple leaves with imps and a poem and you just let me know how you’re feeling?? 🥺💕🍁
ao what i'm hearing is Over the Garden Wall absolutely n a i l e d it
that was so lovely and festive! when i was a kid we would twist the stems off apples, going through the alphabet with one letter per twist, and whatever letter the stem came off with was the first letter of your soulmate! and thanks for captions
when are the fancy restaurants going to go back to gentrify weird victorian sandwiches
omg the postcards reminds me of Over the Garden Wall
TUTTERRR! Omg you have reached omnipotent being level!!! The fit, the decor, I can't! Excellent content🎃
All those apple games reminded me of a similar trick my friend told me when we were in middle school! She said to twist the apple stem while saying the alphabet and whichever letter you're on when it tears off is the initial of the person you're going to marry~
In my school we also did that. And then we would list people's names from our grade and she would say yeah or nah.
Thanks for a forgotten memory. Funnily enough it worked
Easily one of my new favorite videos! I've always tried to get into the gory scary side of modern Halloween and it never sits right. But getting a peek at Halloween origins in creativity and play has inspired me so much! 🎃🖤
Yeah I always prefer Halloween when it is just kind of playfully spooky
Just bear in mind these are not the 'origins'... they are quite modern collections of reinterpreted traditions, including ones with probably no actual origin in anything to do with halloween, brought together, at least for the focus of this video's time period, in a multi-ethnic emigrant environment. maybe rather than 'halloween origins' a better term would be 'more traditional halloween'
@@stiofanmacamhalghaidhau765 Oh yes that is better wording for it, thank you. I'm aware these aren't the origins in that sense, but keep sharing knowledge, cheers.
I'd go to a party like this over the overdone "Let's be as gratuitously gory as possible" crap that's done today. Also, as a Wiccan who celebrates Samhain, I appreciate how average Halloween parties once kept the aspects of honoring nature and recognizing that the veil between our world and others is thin at this time of year, thus making it opportune thimes for fortunetelling. Have a happy, safe spooky season, everyone! Blessed be!
Exactly!
Tired of all this fake blood and gory.
I rather have a Halloween 🎃 party that's actually fun.
Yes, the fortune telling aspect is the best and usually the most fun. I gave a party years ago where I spent most of my time in the Madam LaZonga Room (bedroom) where I did tarot reading. In retrospect, I spent too much time and energy doing this, but everyone had a great time.
This video made me super nostalgic! In high school, my theatre friends and I had an annual Halloween party very similar to this. We’d play games with apples and stuff but without all the fortune telling. There was constant parental supervision, so all the drama came from things like who teamed up with whom for which games. It was like ooooo he teamed up with her for the game with the M&M’s ooooo! 😆 It was honestly so much fun though.
Thank you for the lovely calm vibes of this. Rn I’m going through Extremely stressful home renovation and I don’t even have a real room to have privacy from all the strange men coming in my house and being loud and the Man Of The House paying for the privilege of yelling at them, so thank you SO much for making such a cozy escape atmosphere this morning.
Oh how I wish I was a gay little Halloween vegetable person
That cute little ghost over your shoulder looks as if they're about to give you a head massage 👻
Such an interesting and informative video as always! 🎃
The coolest thing I learnt is that in Ireland they used to carve turnips and actually took the practice to the states. Which later was changed to pumpkins the turnip jack o lanterns look a lot more creepy and the is even a cool Irish folk tale about how they came about. I only found out about it because one year when I was a kid I could not get a pumpkin so a grand parent told the cool Irish story and helped me carve a turnip instead
This reminded me of my grandma and made me cry a little.
in swedish, candied almonds are literally called burnt almonds ("brända mandlar") It's usually being sold during fairs and it's really good actually ! :D so maybe they were talking about that? i may be really wrong tho haha, it just came to mind
(btw!: really nice and interesting video!! :^)
A lot of those sandwiches give me big Thanksgiving leftover sandwich energy though, to be fair. People of the past must've had a bigger taste for meat+fruit combos. And cream cheese.
Also, you gotta open a PO box for girlfriend applications now.
Seconding this comment
growing up, i had some family-friends who lived in a 1910s farmhouse and they threw the best Halloween parties, they were a lot more like this than modern day halloween parties
LOVE that you used the What we do in the Shadows line. The phrase "creepy paper" is stated ad nauseam among my wife an I.
I think what is most special about old fashioned Halloween traditions is the rush of nostalgia they bring. I remember being invited to a Halloween party at a local Campfire Girls meeting one year, and was so thrilled and excited. We got to dress in costumes, played games and had Halloween themed snacks. It was magical to me. All those vintage decorations still vividly brings back the fun and excitement I felt. I have loved the holiday ever since, and would plan my childrens costumes and spend months haunting local thrift shops serching for the perfect items. One year, my daughter was Lizzie Borden, complete with a fake ax, and was a big hit. I always tried to make their All Hallows Eve special, with creepy foods for dinner, trick or treating, and a spooky bedtime story like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I hope they have fond memories of Halloween too.
God Kaz's fashion sense drives me wild, they dress so damn handsomely
I guess ppl stoped playing the apple and candle game bc it sounds lowkey dangerous 😅
I have never heard of a boo bag in my life and I sure wish I had
i wish it was still encouraged to be so creative! i remember even when i was little like 15 years ago it was so much more common for people to make their own halloween costumes and decorations
When I say I love Halloween *this* is the type of Halloween I’m talking about
In the Betsy, Tacey, and Tibb series, which followed three friends through the 1900's and 1910's, there is a great chapter about Betsy (?) giving just such a party when they were in high school. It struck me later in life that my grandmother would have done something very similar and wish I had thought to ask her about it while she was still alive. I used to live in L.A. country and I miss the vitality and fun of the area at this time. Always a Samhain ceremony somewhere.
Not gonna lie, most of those sandwiches didn't sound that bad.
I’d probably eat all of them tbh. But I’d also probably eat a donut from the garbage if it was freshly laid right on top not touching anything gross, tbh.
I agree. I find most of that normal.
love the decorations! I once had an adorable pumpkin figurine that I accidentally knocked off the table while vacuuming 😔🎃 also, it's mind-boggling how simply feeling unfiltered joy is seen as childish or immature by some haha
“You’re fickle, and tis said, you’ll often love but never wed” is SO affirming tbh. I want that on a jacket.
Your shirt is perfection 🧡
I am also obsessed with Halloween vegetable people, top tier creepy and cute
I love your little Hallowe'en grotto, and am very jealous of your excellent shirt. The print on it is so sweet!
I found this very informative, and the games reminded me a lot of the kind of Hallowe'en stuff we did when I was a kid (mid-to-late 1980s, UK). All spooky fun and black-and-orange creepy-paper home-made decorations.
… I prefer to think of this as “What ladies publications had to say about Halloween parties”. I’m sure some of it probably happened like that. Because if you tell enough people to do a thing, and some will. But it would also be like reading what Martha and one-min-never-works-like-they-show-crafts and deciding those are good indications of what most people actually do for Halloween parties today.
....I should check that out for Halloween crafts and see if there is anything interesting. This video already made me realize I need to look up vintage Halloween crafts
Thats a good point. It’s like those Bertha Banner Victorian sewing manuals that say your hand stitches should all be two threads over four threads under or whatever crazy measurement they have. This must be like Halloween party goals, I doubt many people had this level of dedication
@@k80_ You could be right, but I think you might be overlooking the fact that this is the pre-media era. Radio was brand new and Television was still merely a concept. Mass consumerism isn't even an inkling yet. People will be both more likely and more accustomed to creating their own amusements, out of what they have on hand or can acquire easily, which means that we can reason that they did partake in holiday planning more than your average modern individual
“Baby I promote ghostly interests every day.” 😂
Also I just wanna say, your costumes are always phenomenal. You’re truly an artist through and through.
That day is better that has a Kaz Rowe video in it.
Somehow this is dark academia UA-cam and I live for it
Now I want to throw a very on theme 1910s/20s halloween party and make everyone come in accordingly themed costumes
I'm jealous of the boo bags. I live in Asia so even trick or treat-ing is not a thing 🥲
Also, erm, where do I send in the girlfriend application?
in Australia we don’t really celebrate it either :( i wish we did! it’s a mostly christian country though so that’s probably why
It's never too late to start. Halloween is not a religious thing, it's a human thing. Trick, treat and be scary 🧡🖤🧡
@@rd6203 i wasn’t allowed to go trick or treating as a kid, and even if i did go there’s not many houses that give out lollies. but i agree- but also it originated as a pagan thing so a lot of christians are afraid of it :(
halloween is for everyone! i don’t see the issue, i’m very jealous of americans haha
It’s All Hallows’ Eve or the day before Saints Day ( Nov 1). It’s def a “Christian” thing
@@memeju1ce in Germany it's getting more popular but my Family hates it because its too "American"... Even though it got imported to the US from Ireland ... But then again, my family isnt catholic, and the festivities that evolved into Halloween (all hallows Eve) are a catholic Holiday so thats probably also a factor.
Ahhhh I wanna throw an cute old fashioned Halloween party!
I'm old enough to remember when Halloween costumes in the store were advertised as being safer because they were "fire retardant" due to the magic of asbestos.
That papier mache snake would be so creepy, yet so unique at the same time. Love the info about the elves salad and Goblin's food. Never heard of any of those before. I enjoyed this video! So much more interesting than the usual creepy ghost stories.
i love this stuff too, i wish Halloween was more about having fun and spookiness rather than horror and gore
I have a pbj tutter!! I feel so elite!
Pbj tutter gang rise up!
The fit. The decor. The excellent information. You continue to slay.
The little sandwiches sound good to me, but then again I'm willing to try almost anything 😅
Took one look at the title and thought to myself, "aw yeah, directions for next year's festivities".
yesss early 1900s content
Yeeeeess ur lil Tutter is so cute! I loved Bear in the Big Blue House as a kid. I think we had it on VHS lol.
I have a party book from the 1930’s, and some of the ideas are actually more progressive than many people nowadays might suspect. The Halloween party is essentially palm reading themed. There’s even a party theme where men and women swap gender roles! It’s really neat stuff!
My spooky heart loves Halloween. I love the invitation idea and returning the leaf to confirm if you would be attending 😍 you are so adorable. I love your voice and how you deliver history, very interesting.
LOVE your decorations Kaz!! I feel so lucky I grew up in a household that loved Halloween. (Two moms, both witches🌈 🖤) We always made our costumes and decor. We lived rural so no trick or treating but if we were lucky we'd drive to Grandma in LA and get to trick or treat! It's still my favorite holiday. I'd love to hear what everyone is going to dress up as!!
Oh my gosh! Thats where they got the veggie people from over the garden wall. Thats so cool
the first food-fortune sounds like the whole party's gonna have an all-out, fight to the death brawl as soon as someone reads it and i cant get it out of my head now bfhjdsfd
I don’t know if every school did this but my school used to always do that same thing with changing the name of normal foods to Halloween stuff, like witches brew was just soup, goblins feet was pizza, and severed fingers was French fries
My not-so-secret hobby: browse 1920s Halloween costumes on Pinterest. I'm also weirdly interested in trying cream cheese and olive sandwiches as I remember it mentioned in Harriet the Spy (the book) as an alternative to Harriet's favorite tomato & mayo sandwich.
Just started watching, but right after u introduced your mouse friend... All I can visually focus on now is this plushie 😂
I cannot be the only person who thinks these sandwiches sound amazing
Yeah...Im not really sure what is so shocking about cream cheese and olives or cream cheese and fruit jelly. Its a pretty standard deli/bagel shop filling. I was expecting aspic or head cheese on toast from the build up about weird food.
I want to do an Over the Garden Wall-themed party next year, I’m gonna go off of this!!
My neighbor used to put out "burnt almonds" for Christmas parties. They're just really dark-toasted almonds with a little sugar glaze and they were to die for. I dunno -- they felt old-timey. It wouldn't surprise me if they were the same thing in the early 20th century.
The sandwiches sound less than stellar though.
Recently bought magnet of that pumpkin man driving a watermelon party postcard you showed! Reminds me of the pilot of "Over the Garden Wall"
Also holy shit that fit is CUTE
Hey, don't scoff at burnt almonds! That's a classic Christmas treat in Norway. It's basically just almonds roasted in caramelised sugar, so it's sort of like a candied apple, but an almond instead. Candied almond, I guess would be the best way to explain it to English-speakers. They're sweet, but not too much, and they're crunchy.
When I lived in PA growing up they did that tradition of the spooky treat basket you received and had to pass on/ding dong ditch to someone else. Shit was fun
Wake up babe new video from Kaz Rowe just dropped
I love your button up!
Not me finding your channel at 3 am, and getting addicted, love everything about it
I’m sorry I got too distracted by singing bear in the big blue house that I missed the beginning of your video.😂
6:34 "Which where branched off from old Irish, Scottish, and-"
And Welsh!
"-English folk traditions and beliefs."
:(
Getting overlooked for Ireland and Scotland in these matters is one thing, but England?
Other than that thank you for the Calan Gaeaf vibed!
agreed. having bumped up against this 'engish halloween traditions' notion ugh-too-many times over the decades, I've found the best response is to just ask 'which of these traditions are from england?' and just sit back and wait for the realisation to sink in. wales gets a damn raw deal at the best of times.
This was awesome. I want to do the Jack Horner pie for a Halloween party, when the pandy is done. So, next year.
Are you doing it?
I only started watching your channel fairly recently, but you’ve quickly become one of my favorites. Thanks for another fun historical video!
I forgot about boo bags!! I only ever got one, it was fun though. We had to put a picture of something in the window once the ghost baddie baddie had come.
As someone who loves all things vintage holiday (especially 1920’s), I loved this video.
omg totally forgot about boo bags until you brought it up again!!! missing that tradition
Had just rewatched that episode of in the shadows before finding you and binging your videos until we’ll into the night; you’re a keeper
those "boo bags" sound genuinely terrifying XD what a strange concept! I am shocked that's a common thing.
I'm in love with your spooky set-up!
This is my new favorite channel to binge. They tell the stories soooo well.