"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!
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