The Ridge Historical Society
Halloween on the Ridge – Part 2: Halloween Customs One Hundred Years Ago
By Carol Flynn
The first post covered the origin of Halloween as a Celtic custom brought over to the U.S. by the Irish immigrants in the 1800s.
By 1900, Halloween had lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones, and parties were the most common way to celebrate the day. My great-grandparents hosted a Halloween party at their house on 110th and Homewood Avenue in 1915. This is what a party might have looked like back then.
Prior to 1900, decorations relied on natural items. The Irish Americans adapted their customs to use the native plants they found in the U.S., like corn stalks, to symbolize the harvest. Jack-o-lanterns were still customary, but now they were made from native pumpkins. One Irishman who moved to the States about twenty years ago commented that it was much easier to carve pumpkins than to carve turnips.
In the early 1900s, several companies, notably Dennison Manufacturing Company, began making paper products such as heavy cardboard die cuts; paper plates, cups, and napkins; crepe paper streamers, and the like.
Decorations became much more sophisticated and commercial. Dennison published “Halloween Bogie” books from 1909 through 1934 that were catalogs that also included ideas, illustrations and instructions for decorations and parties.
Costumes were mostly still homemade affairs, although there were some costume companies, but their goods were expensive. The costumes presented in the Bogie books were sophisticated but many photos from the early 1900s show homemade costumes that were, quite frankly, creepy, by today’s standards.
In addition to some of the traditional games like bobbing for apples, fortune telling and other divination games were popular. Variations of a “mirror test” were mentioned often in articles of the day. One version called for a girl to sit before a mirror at midnight on Halloween, combing her hair and eating an apple, in order to see the face of her true love reflected in the glass.
Food suggestions included a sit-down supper with items like cream of celery soup, brown bread sandwiches and Waldorf salad, to a buffet including a variety of finger sandwiches (cucumber, salmon, jelly), stuffed celery, and orange sherbet. Gingerbread was popular in any form – cookies, cake with marshmallow frosting.