Party on the Dark Side

Excerpt from the Ghost House by Robert Frost

Hello Friends,

At this time of year, Halloween decorations are littered with finesse and magnitude in my neighborhood.  I will be honest with you, this is not my favorite holiday.  I love seeing kids dressed up and trick-or-treating, but I’m usually quite unimpressed with Halloween decorations.  Typically, my friends and family chastise me for my simple disdain of the holiday, while they are out having much more fun.

Fed up with my dissatisfaction and critical feelings,  I began working on an attitude shift and conducted some research for a more nuanced look at Halloween.  I stumbled upon the Victorian period in my research, and it led me to aspects that I am very interested in.  For instance, did you know that during the Victorian period, séances were in full swing, allowing people to speak with the dead at parties?  Apparently, according to this blog from our friends in Winnipeg, many Victorians (including Queen Victoria herself!) were disillusioned with traditional religion. They were questioning some of the Bible’s claims.  This “speaks” to me as both my mom and best friend are mediums, and  I find this other world intriguing.

As I learned more about the Victorian salon parties, I also learned that sometimes they would have a single woman look in a mirror and see her future partner.  This process, which involves the use of mirrors, is called Scrying.  How cool is that for a party trick! (Or was it?). “Heroines ate apples at midnight on Halloween while looking in a mirror for the face of a future husband. They followed balls of unwound yarn to dark barns and cellars, falling helplessly into the arms of some gallant hero”. This information is straight from iskullhalloween.com by LesleyBanatyne. Such romance!  Now I am in!

Again, I went deeper to try to dispel my unappreciation of this holiday.  I  learned that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes acclaim, as well as Madame Curie, Mark Twain, and Frederic Douglass all attended seances.  This New Yorker link says it all: Why Did So Many Victorians Try to Speak with the Dead? During the 1870s, the Halloween parties were in full swing.  Dressing up, bobbing for apples, and mixing drinks were usually part of the celebration, and the decorations were elaborate!  Victorian women were expected to be artistic, and their party plans would sometimes include invitations with poetry delivered inside a carved pumpkin and other intricate, creative schemes—how cool is that!  I am beginning to wonder how to explore this holiday more deeply, in terms of its meaning and social significance.

 I began thinking about Victorian homes and the beauty that exists in Atlanta’s Inman Park and Grant Park neighborhoods.  And I started thinking about my friend Rebecca, of House 10 Designs, who curates an elaborate Halloween celebration every year.  She is like a modern Victorian woman, artistic, creative, and always outdoing herself at her last party.  She thinks nothing of spending hours creating the perfect creepy mantle, cultivating a purple cocktail complete with edible eyeballs, and producing other delectable appetizers for her guests to enjoy.  I have never (really!) seen anything like it or met anyone like her!  And her Victorian home in Grant Park is the perfect backdrop.  Her diligent effort and precise attention to every detail were making quite an impression on me and perhaps even helping me to appreciate the season.  She is quite the stylist, party planner, and gracious host.

You probably didn’t need an impetus to enjoy this fall holiday; you are probably a person who enjoys the silliness and knows how to have fun!  And for that, I am grateful to know you.  However, if you did enjoy this brief journey into Victorian history, you may also appreciate this book that has made an impression on me: Victorian Modern.  I do love this era, and these homes.

I don’t particularly like this quick poem about the Halloween season, but I enjoy writing poetry, so I wanted to share it!  I hope you enjoy the fall chill and will reach out with your own Halloween musings.

Thank you for reading,

Stephanie