Post new blog entry!The Halloween Dumb Supper
Dumb cakes and dumb suppers most likely grew out of the idea of feeding the dead. The cooking was done in complete silence, and, often, backwards. If it worked, folks said, spirits would come to the supper table. For at least two centuries, women on both sides of the Atlantic tried Halloween dumb suppers with varying success.
Here's how to do it: Sometime before midnight on Halloween set a table for you, your guests, and a spirit. You must not speak during the entire process. Then, cook a meal—preferably something traditional for Halloween—and set it on plates. Serve each plate walking backwards, sit down, and, without talking, eat. A spirit should appear at midnight and take a place at the table. It's said this will be the spirit of your one true love.
Halloween Dumb Cake
Place a tin of flour and a small bowl of salt on a table. Have each guest take a handful of flour and place it on a sheet of wax paper. Each person then sprinkles the flour with as much salt as she can hold between her finger and thumb. Stir the flour and salt together and hide a wedding ring in the mixture. Sprinkle it with a few drops of water and mix again. Heap the “dough” into a small bowl and pack it down hard. Turn the bowl upside down and unmold the flour-and-salt dough, carefully, so that it retains its round shape. Have each person slice a piece of the “cake.” The guest who gets the piece with the ring will marry next. To alter this game, use a charm that has special meaning, such as a coin for a new job, or a piece of eggshell for a baby.
Ducking for Apples
Fill a tub or bucket, the biggest you can find (I used a child’s swimming pool once), with water. Stock it with apples and let several guests at a time try to grab an apple with their teeth. In the 19th century, they said whoever snagged the first apple would marry first. Alternately, the first name you heard spoken out loud after you'd snagged your apple would be the name of your future spouse. In another variation, charms were pushed into the apples before they were set floating. He or she who snagged the apple with a coin would grow wealthy; a ring, be married; and a button, never marry.
Although I like second sight as a prize, especially on Halloween night, you can choose new meanings for your charms or prizes to modernize the game and make it more appropriate for your guests.
