The traditional Sunderland ways to find your true Halloween sweetheart

Halloween in Sunderland of old was a scary affair - but not because of ghosts.

It's because the traditions of the day really were edge-of-the-seat occasions, as historian Sharon Vincent explains.

In the second part of her look back at strange Wearside Halloween pastimes, she finds out that many traditions were based around love and marriage.

Unmarried girls could find who they were going to marry by unravelling a ball of wool.

They would let it out of a window and fall into the shadows below until only the end was left in her hand.

Scary balls of wool

Then the yarn would be wound up again until something caught hold of it and it was held fast.

The girl would ask, “Who holds?” and perhaps a spectral voice would call out the name of the future spouse or his shape would appear in the gloom.

At the moment when the yarn became stuck and couldn’t be wound in, many girls would freeze and be too afraid to ask the question of whatever was waiting out there in the darkness.

The apple that held the key to your heart

A less scary way for a girl to discover the identity of her true love would be to peel an apple so that the peel comes off in one unbroken strip.

She would then throw the peel over her shoulder where it would land on the floor to reveal the initial letter of the name of her future sweetheart.

Another one from the distant past was a bit extreme but if you wished to discover your future husband’s occupation, hold a door key in one hand.

With the other, pour melted lead from an iron spoon through the handle of the key into a pan of cold water.

Performing a play at your front door

If the shape formed by the lead in the water looks like a brush, one’s future spouse will be an artist; if a gun, a soldier; if a ship, a sailor; if a book, a professional; if the lead only forms droplets, there will either be no future husband or he will have no occupation.

Guising is another northern tradition where youngsters would dress up in strange costumes so that malevolent spirits and ghosts could not recognise them.

The children would knock on friends’ doors and perform a play, a song or dance in exchange for coins, sweets or cakes. It’s easy to see how this old custom led to today’s modern-day trick-or-treating.

Shutting the door to the underworld

After all the excitement of the night before and maybe catching a glimpse of what the future holds, the next day was All Saints Day when the door to the underworld was firmly shut once more.

The lives of the saints were commemorated with solemnity and piety.

Meanwhile young lads and lasses would be dreaming of the future and whether their Halloween predictions would come true.

And if they didn’t get the results they wanted, well, there’s always next year.