Historical Halloween: How Southington Celebrated

Halloween, All Hallows’ Eve or Hallowe’en as it has been referred to throughout American history is celebrated globally on October 31. The holiday developed from the ancient Celtic festival commemorating the changing of seasons from summer to winter, light to dark. On this day the belief was that the veil between the living world and the dead was weak enough for spirits who died throughout the year to cross over and visit the homes of their relatives. Large bonfires would be lit throughout a village for anyone seeking to relight their hearths for winter and to keep away any ill-willed spirits. Costumes and masks were worn as disguises should a devilish spirit seek to haunt you, and most importantly the holiday acted as a day to predict the forthcoming year, be it in health or wealth but especially love. When the Romans conquered the Celtic region between 390 BCE and 43 AD Roman rituals celebrating the dead and the harvest season influenced the traditions that have come to mark the holiday for us today. 
In its earliest history, Halloween or Hallowe’en was a celebration first brought to America by Irish immigrants in the 1840s who continued to celebrate amongst themselves, projecting Irish hospitality by sending the “richest products of the farm” for the celebratory feast that marked the end of the harvest season. Young men and their sweethearts would go door to door to houses of friends and relatives participating in fun and feasting. The earliest mentions of such celebrations in Southington found within The Barnes Museum’s collection are found in Alice Bradley Barnes’s (1843-1897) 1871 diary. Alice who grew up in the Barnes Museum and is the mother of Bradley Barnes wrote in her diary on October 31, 1871, that she was “helping Pa clean and trim the lamps and clean the chimneys for the hall tonight as the Irish have a dance there tonight”.

Meriden Daily Republican Oct 30 1883, p.3
Ceremoniously many of the activities of Halloween are traditionally related to couples. Apples and nuts were used to predict the strength of a couple’s relationship. Nuts would be placed on a fire grate to see if the nuts would promptly pop, indicating a good match. Another activity was “lover’s blind man’s buff” in which three plates - one depicting the earth symbolizing sudden or violent death, another with water which could mean emigration or shipwreck, and the third plate having a ring on it to symbolize without a doubt a wedding very soon to come thereafter. Usually, a man’s sweetheart was the one to blindfold him and thus the couple quickly conspired to ensure a peephole for the lad to choose the ringed plate. Another activity enjoyed involved young lads and ladies diving head down into a large tub of water to try to pick up with their mouth from the bottom a shilling, penny, or ten-penny (dime).
 
Snap-apple was a game in which several two-foot-long crossed sticks were suspended from the ceiling, each with a short lighted candle on one end and an apple on the other end. The sticks would then be spun around, and the prize went to the young person who could grab the apple of the stick with their teeth. The trick to the treat was that occasionally someone accidentally bit the candle end of the stick - ouch.  In Southington in the 1800s, a pail of cider containing roasted apples was taken into the orchard and drank to the “good health of the apple trees”. Apple pies would be made tiny and hidden under pillows by ladies attempting to woo their sweethearts on Halloween night. 
 
Children, especially boys and a few girls dressed as boys for the evening would go out and stir trouble. Halloween in Southington in 1889 marked town trash barrels being flipped over, posts pulled out of the grounds, and gates missing or trashed as part of what was called then “the bombardment of North Main Street”. In 1893 some of the Center Street business signs were ripped off and discarded in the center of the street. The way children first celebrated Halloween in these destructive ways is best depicted in the 1944 classic film Meet Me in St. Louis starring Judy Garland. The film is set in the year 1903 and shows the classic holiday being celebrated by young folks of the neighborhood dressed in their worst clothing, dirt on their faces, parading around town carrying out acts that would deem one of them the “most horrible”. 

Things escalated though and in 1907 those mischievous children “bombarding” the streets took things a bit too far by smashing front doors to homes on North Main Street. The newspaper the following year reported that Halloween observances were to be quiet in sections of town when things were “overdone”. 

The Journal 31 Oct 1908, p.1
By 1890 it was a popular occasion for local societies and residents to host dress balls on Hallowe’en night with local papers reporting the next day on those who attended, what they wore, and the music or entertainment they listened to. People would have their choice of several local Halloween parties thrown at local residences and dance halls. One such ball occurred in Southington in 1891 at St. Thomas Church and was attended by nearly everyone in town. The evening began with each gentleman receiving a slip of paper inviting him to vote for one of the ladies present at the ball to win a solid gold ring. The lady with the most votes won the ring. Many of the ladies were just past the entrance where they attempted to advocate to be the one to win the gentleman’s vote and the symbolic gold ring. As the decade edged to the turn of the century, Halloween celebrations continued to play off of mystical themes that included predicting the future, fortune telling, readings about ancient superstitions, pumpkin carving, and much of the same ghoulish merriment we still celebrate today. 
 
Halloween is a special day for The Barnes Museum as it is the birthday of Leila Holcomb Upson Barnes (1884-1952), wife of Bradley Barnes, and resident of the museum from 1910-1952. As children, Bradley and Leila grew up as schoolmates and neighbors and often Leila would celebrate her birthday with a Halloween party that Bradley would be invited to. Her sixteenth birthday was reported in local papers as being a special occasion for such a reason with many local families invited to celebrate in spooky style with games, music, and a feast. The evening ended with Leila receiving a gold ring, a tradition at the time symbolic of a betrothal in her future. Ten years later she married a young man who had been at her sixteenth birthday party, Mr. Bradley Barnes. 

The Journal, October 8 & Nov 1  1900. 
Halloween is a special day for The Barnes Museum as it is the birthday of Leila Holcomb Upson Barnes (1884-1952), wife of Bradley Barnes and resident of the museum from 1910-1952. As children, Bradley and Leila grew up as schoolmates and neighbors and often Leila would celebrate her birthday with a Halloween party that Bradley would be invited to. Her sixteenth birthday was reported in local papers as being a special occasion for such a reason with many local families invited to celebrate in spooky style with games, music, and a feast. The evening ended with Leila receiving a gold ring, a tradition at the time symbolic of a betrothal in her future. Ten years later she married a young man who had been at her sixteenth birthday party Mr. Bradley Barnes.
This year on October 30, 2021 we will be commemorating Leila and her birthday once again with Leila’s Birthday Bash, a spook-filled event filled with games, treats, and very few tricks. We hope to welcome children to the museum and museum grounds to honor and celebrate the way Leila did for so many years in her youth. Happy Hallowe’en!!! 

Leila Upson Barnes pictured on the grounds of The Barnes Museum circa 1910. 

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This year on October 30, 2021 we will be commemorating Leila and her birthday once again with Leila’s Birthday Bash, a spook-filled event filled with games, treats, and very few tricks. We hope to welcome children to the museum and museum grounds to honor and celebrate the way Leila did for so many years in her youth. Happy Hallowe’en!!! ​