  Have a card and a candle for each guest, the candles in as many different colors as possible, and one corner of each card turned down and tied with baby ribbon—one color for ladies, and another for gentlemen. On the cards have couplets written foretelling future events, such as: Who gets the candle colored red Will have long life, but never wed. If you choose the candle green You'll have the prettiest wife e'er seen. For you the kind fates have a plan Whereby you sure will get a man. Let each guest take a card and a candle (if the base of the candle is warmed it will stick to the card), read the couplet aloud, then light the candle, and holding it at arm's length blow it out. If it is blown out upon the first trial the person will be married within a year; if upon the second trial, within two years, etc. Write rhymes of four or six lines on thin paper, and place in chestnut shells. Tie together with ribbon, the ladies' in one color, the gentlemen's in another. If there are personal hits in the rhymes, tie the name of the person for whom each one is intended on the outside of the shell. Hide a ring, a thimble and a penny in the room. To the one who finds the ring speedy marriage is assured; the thimble denotes a life of single blessedness; the penny promises wealth. Have one of the young ladies who knows a little palmistry be the witch of the evening. A short, bright-hued skirt, a gay plaid shawl crossed over her shoulders, a scarf bound about her head, will make a very striking costume, and, with the aid of a little paint and powder, quite an effective disguise. If she is enough acquainted with the guests to give some personal history she can produce some very "telling" fortunes. After the witch has exhausted her ingenuity as palmist, let her offer to disclose the name of the future bride or groom of each one present, by means of the fairy mirror. The room she uses should be dimly lighted. She writes the name on a mirror with French chalk, rubs it off lightly with a silk handkerchief, and calls in the person for whom the name is written. Prepare a basket of rosy cheeked apples, each with the initials of a name pricked in the skin, which names must be used in counting the apple seeds. After the supper table has been cleared of all except the decorations and candles, have a large dish filled with burning alcohol and salt brought in and placed in the centre. Seated around this ghostly fire, all other lights except the candles having been extinguished, let the guests tell stirring stories rigmarole fashion; that is, some one starting the story and stopping short at its most exciting point and letting his neighbor continue it, etc., each one trying to make it as interesting as possible. |
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