2. People Used To Exchange Halloween Post Cards Like Christmas Cards
While most Americans are likely familiar with the holiday tradition of exchanging Christmas or holiday cards, there is a widely forgotten similar tradition of exchanging Halloween postcards. In the Victorian era, Halloween became a popular time to exchange greetings with brightly colored, spooky notes.
In the Victorian era, Halloween still retained many folk traditions concerning romance and diving one’s romantic future. Halloween postcards played up these traditions, with countless postcards showing couples surrounded by pumpkins, women conjuring the faces of men from cauldrons, and other festive, romantic imagery. Given that postcards and calling cards were common tools of courtship in the Victorian era, it would appear Halloween got in on the wild fun.
Postcard collectors especially prize Halloween ones due to their colorful and unique imagery, many of which are tied to long-forgotten Halloween customs. One famous example shows stalks of floating kate with a poem about bonny sweethearts. During the era, a favorite game was pulling up a kale stalk blindfolded. The shape of the stem foretold your future lover’s form, while the flavor of the stalk foretold their temperament. The sweeter, the better! Other postcards referenced customs such as eating an apple while looking in a candle-lit mirror to see the face of one’s future spouse.