Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Pumpkin Carving and Divination


This evening my roomie Gina, her friend Danica and I carved pumpkins at our place. What Halloween season wouldn't be complete with a little carving pumpkin action? I wasn't really in the serious carving pumpkin mood so I just carved a little one that I got a couple weeks ago at a pumpkin farm. Sadly, it was too small to carve a face into it so instead, I cut out little hearts all over it.

Gina and I also made another one of our fabulous you-tube videos but it hasn't been edited or uploaded yet. When it does, I'll be sure
to share it on here. To play catch up, here's the link to view our older ones: http://www.youtube.com/user/PinUpsForVets


So for our videos, we often look up information online and this time was no different, we looked up the history of Halloween. The following is something I learned but didn't bring up in the video:


"Some games traditionally played at Halloween are forms of divination. A traditional Scottish form of divining one's future spouse is to carve an apple in one long strip, then toss the peel over one's shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's name. Unmarried women were told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Halloween night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror. However, if they were destined to die before marriage, a skull would appear. The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards from the late 19th century and early 20th century."

Creepy, right?! Shall I try this on Halloween night this year? Hmmm.. Well, have you carved any pumpkins yet this year?

4 comments:

  1. Oh yes. We did it on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. My kids started fighting over the pumpkin seeds...can you believe it. They each had their own pumpkins, for crying out loud. Sigh. They turned out great.
    As for those tales in the end...very interesting. I wonder if it works if you are already married. Hmmmmmmm

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  2. OEh I love it how you cut the pumpkins! The one with the heart is really cute!

    http://style-in-sight.blogspot.com

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  3. I have never heard that pumpkin peel story before, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to know either way! The threat of a skull is too much!

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