Skull-Cracking and Snapdragon: Games We WON’T be Playing on Halloween
BY Hannah Moses
Programs Assistant and Volunteer Coordinator
Halloween is just three days away and we are excited to introduce our guests to some forgotten historic Halloween traditions here at the George Ranch Historical Park!
If you come out to our 1830s Jones Stock Farm, you’ll get to try your hand at some fortune telling games Robert Burns described in his fascinating poem, “Halloween” (1785). Or you can come to the 1930s George Cattle Complex and participate in a Halloween activity that was created to stop kids from vandalizing public property. But there will also be a number of Halloween traditions we will not be doing this year.
Halloween traditions in the past were not as kid-friendly as they are today. For example, a 1935 Popular Mechanics article described a “fun” game they called Skull-Cracking. First, you hammer nails into the seat of a chair. Then you rig the nails to a small circuit board. The hapless victim is told that the object of the game is to squash a balloon by sitting on a chair. Once the kid pops the balloon, you flip the switch, and the child gets an unpleasant electric shock to his behind. No wonder Halloween used to be called “Mischief-Night”!
A 1912 book titled Games for Halloween describes a game that was popular for both Halloween and Christmas. Snapdragon was exciting, scary and relied on speed. Sounds like a great game, right? Yes, if you like reaching your hand into fire. To play snapdragon, you fill up a bowl with brandy or some other kind of alcohol. Turn the lights off. Light the alcohol on fire and sprinkle salt into it. This will impart a “ghost-like pallor to every face.” Toss candied fruits, dried fruits, nuts, and other small prizes into the fire. The goal is to snap as many treats from the flames as possible. The one with the most treats wins. As a bonus, the winner will also meet his true love within the year!
While ducking for apples has been a harvest season game for centuries, there is another apple game that has for some reason fallen out of favor. W. & R. Chambers describes it best in his 1832 Book of Days:
“As to apples, there is an old custom, perhaps still observed in some localities on this merry night, of hanging up a stick horizontally by a string from the ceiling, and putting a candle on the one end, and an apple on the other. The stick being made to twirl rapidly, the merry-makers in succession leap up and snatch the apple with their teeth (no use of hands being allowed), but it very frequently happens that the candle comes round before they are aware, and scorches them in the face, or anoints them with grease. The disappointments and misadventures occasion, of course, abundance of laughter.”
If you come out to the Park on Saturday, you might recognize the candle and apple game–but we’ve put a spin on it so you won’t be in danger of getting your eyes poked out or your face scorched. You’ll have to come check it out yourself to see how we changed it!
So there you have it. Three forgotten games that we don’t plan on reviving this Halloween. We don’t necessarily recommend you trying them at home either. But if you do, let us know how it goes!
