Surprising Superstitions of the Victorian Era

By Violet Wisdom

The spookiest season of the year is upon us, and no era had more erie traditions than the Victorian Era. The mid to late 1800s in America was a time of macabre, superstitions and of course celebration. Halloween itself was much less a holiday for children as it is today. Instead, it was a grand excuse for large social events and an opportunity to play out all those odd traditions in ritual and costume. First, the macabre:

Victorian funeral traditions were vast and well, weird. In fact, one of our local historic house museums, the Vaile Mansion has yearly events around Halloween to put these strange customs on display. Death in this era caused a flurry of activity that included:

• Covering mirrors with cloth to insure the person who had passed wouldn’t get trapped in one. All window curtains were pulled shut and black ribbons put on the doors to let others know they were in mourning. 
  

• Stopping clocks to mark the time of death and ensure their loved one wouldn’t get trapped in a time continuum. 
  

• Removing the body feet first so that no living person could look in their eyes which they feared could cause the living to follow them into the ever after. 
  

• Widows would refrain from any socializing for at least three months and wear black for at least a year. 
  

• Any photos that existed in the home would be turned down to make sure no spirits found their way to the living. On the note of photos, photography was expensive and oftentimes death was unexpected leaving the family without a photo of their loved one. In these cases, a photographer would be called to the home immediately after death where the body would be propped up, oftentimes with the living family members for a photograph. 
  

• Often times hair from the deceased was used to make a memorial hair wreath or art.

  
  

• 

  
  

  Telling the bees: This one actually goes back to ancient times but became more widespread by the 1800s and it is still practiced to this day. When a beekeeper passed it was considered necessary for a family member to inform the bees of the death. If the bees weren’t told it believed that they would stop producing honey or simply leave.

Halloween parties were social events. for adults. Games, food, ghost stories and decorations abound. They were far from being without superstitions however and most of them were centered on one subject: romance. Marriage in the 19th century was considered a necessary goal in life. If you could go back in time the following would-be ways you could get some supernatural confirmation that love was in your future:

• The winner of apple bobbing was expected to be the first to be married. Apple peelings were studied for a resemblance to a letter of the alphabet which would be considered the first letter of the name of one's future spouse. 
  

• Cakes were baked with a ring inside, whoever got the piece with the ring was soon to be married. In some darker versions of the practice a lump of clay in the cake predicted early death.
  

• Young ladies would stare into a mirror holding a candle and an object such as an apple with the expectation of seeing a vision of their future husband.

Finally, with all the pomp and circumstances of the era, spiritualism had become extremely popular. Seances were common and often part of social events as well as relying on psychics for guidance. Although most of these traditions are long gone, Halloween has become a favorite holiday for adults once again in the past few decades. If you’re looking for a few unique ideas for your own get together, look no further than those hair- wreath making Victorians.