"Halloween dancing parties are much in vogue at present, and a quaint device for arranging partners is still observed, in country places, and, in modified form, in cities..."
I admit, I had never particularly associated cabbage or kale with Halloween, so I was a little bemused when I came across the design at left for a Halloween card. Cabbage? Kale? Really?
Apparently it all goes back to "Auld Scotland", and since I'm in Scotland (again), I'm willing to look at a supposed Scottish tradition:
"The lads and lassies in "Auld Scotland," in the olden time of "Kaling," (hunting for kale or cabbage stocks) went, blindfolded, into the garden on Halloween, and each was expected to honestly bring back the first stalk grasped in the darkness. A thrifty well-formed stalk promised the finder a comely partner for life; a dwarfed or crooked one just the reverse. A bit cut from the top of the stalk indicated the temper of said partner, sweet or bitter as the searcher after destiny chanced to secure a sample. If much earth was found clinging to the root, the finder would be rewarded by riches; but if bare, poverty would be his portion."
So far this is a standard fortune-telling method. But no, wait, in 1891 America it's actually...a sort of cotillion, in the dance party game sense? A method for picking dance partners? Why not!
"According to modern custom throughout the country, the girls, alone, go into the garden to secure the magical stalk. The gentlemen are carefully excluded while the inspecting and tasting goes on; after which, each merry damsel marks her stalk with her initials, and all placed in a stout bag. The young men are now admitted, and each, in quick succession , draws a stalk from the bag. The initials decide his partner for the first dance."
It still retains the fortune-telling aspect, though:
"Each girl is also destined by fate to marry a man whose given or Christian name is the same as that of him who draws the stalk bearing her initials."
Practicalities are also addressed: not every city-dweller has easy access to a decapitated cabbage-patch. But it's fine; one can just buy a bunch of pre-picked stalks:
"In localities where the participants cannot obtain access to a decapitated cabbage-patch, the stalks must be obtained from a market gardener or farmer. They are then put into a bag from which the girls, successively, draw then, (the gentlemen excluded, meantime), after which the proceedings are the same as before given."
I can see this being a very strange beginning to either an evening of cotillions or a standard evening of dancing. Either one could be followed by...a seance? Magic spells?
"Dancing may be indulged in until the supper hour, after which, if the party is held at a private home, various charms and mysteries may be tested."
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So, did this kaling, cabbage-picking thing have any actual connection to Scotland? There are any number of pop culture sites that claim a role for cabbage or kale in Scottish customs, some of which are quite convincing. Weird Christmas, of all places, has a good discussion of Halloween fortune-telling customs using cabbage/kale, as depicted on Halloween cards. There are even footnotes, albeit to secondary sources, including a good article at Smithsonian Magazine, which I regard as pretty solid. I don't plan to get and evaluate the other secondary sources, since general Halloween customs are pretty far out from dance history, but I find the collection of card images and the material in the Smithsonian article convincing enough evidence and encourage those interested in this to visit both sites and take a look at the information and images. Some of the cards are hilarious!
One good primary source that both sites cite is Robert Burns' poem "Halloween" (1785), which covers various Scottish folk traditions, including a bit about kale stalks:
Then, first and foremost, through the kail,
Their stocks maun a' be sought ance;
They steek their een, and graip and wale,
For muckle anes and straught anes.
Poor hav'rel Will fell aff the drift,
And wander'd through the bow-kail,
And pou't, for want o' better shift,
A runt was like a sow-tail,
Sae bow't that night.
And, after that exciting exercise in reading Scots, that's enough about kale and Scottish tradition. Let's get back to the dance connection.
The entire highly questionable party-opening concept quoted at the beginning of the post is from the pages of the American women's magazine Ingall's Home and Art Magazine, Volume 4, 1891, p. 501. According to the site Victorian Voices, Ingall's was designed to be the first monthly periodical "devoted exclusively to woman's work in its varied branches, and suited to the capacity of all classes of workers..." Work, in this case, meant "decorative work" such as embroidery and home decor, though the magazine ranged through many other topics as well.
There was a lot in the article about Halloween parties aside from the bit about kale (though after reading through the above links I understand the use of a cabbage head as a Halloween symbol much better!) The author of the piece discussed Halloween games, a suitable menu with recipes, and invitations, all of which feel vaguely like they would fit into Dennison's Bogie Book, before moving on to perfectly ordinary topics like salad. But there was nothing more about dance; the games were to substitute as entertainment if there were no dancing at the party.
So I'm left with a mystery: did this article document an actual practice of adding dance partner matching to the general fortune-tellings properties of kale-stalk-pulling, or did the author just...make it up? Not that there's anything wrong with that; lots of people made up new cotillions, or put new twists on old ones.
Just...not with cabbage.
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