The prompt this week for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is Trick or Treat. I am treating you with my small collection of vintage Halloween post cards.
Where did they come from?
These post cards belonged to my first cousin, twice removed Myrtle Virginia HILLARD BURROUGHS (5 July 1903-24 Sept 1977). Myrtle was the first cousin of my grandmother, Goldie Isabel PRICE HEISER (1893-1919). Myrtle was an only child, and she and her husband didn’t have any children of their own.
My dad and Myrtle were more like siblings than cousins since they were only ten years apart in age, so when Myrtle passed my dad inherited all of her belongs including a collection of post cards received by her, her parents, and her husband over the years. These Halloween cards, all postmarked between 1900-1910, come from that collection.
Enjoy!
I’m not really sure how I feel about this picture.
What do you think of these post cards? Do you have any vintage Halloween memorabilia? Please comment. I’d love to hear from you.
Copyright © 2019 Nancy H. Vest All Rights Reserved
These are delightful. So glad your family saved them.
I’m glad you enjoyed them. She saved many treasures, but probably didn’t know we’d treasure them, too.
A terrific set of cards. Halloween is a relatively new celebration in Australia so I haven’t seen it spelt as ‘Hallowe’en’ before. Is that the traditional spelling?
Thanks, Brain. Here’s a little background on the spelling of Halloween/Hallowe’en from the Miriam-Webster Dictionary. I didn’t know the history of the spelling either until I looked this up when you asked. Now I know!
Origin of Halloween Spelling
Oh dear, you may think, there’s one of those errant apostrophes that slobs sprinkle throughout the language. Why would the dictionary give in and enter that apostrophized monstrosity? Surprise: that apostrophe is actually original to the word.
When Halloween first came into written use in English, October 31 wasn’t the linguistic focus—November 1 was. In the western Christian liturgical calendar, November 1 is All Saints’ Day, a feast day to honor all the Christian saints. But All Saints’ Day wasn’t called All Saints’ Day until the 16th century. Prior to that, it was known by the name we borrowed from Old English: All Hallows’ Day or All Hallows’. Hallow comes from the Old English adjective hālig, which means “holy.”
All Hallows’ used to be a bigger deal—one 17th-century source notes that “the three grand days are All-hallown, Candlemass, and Ascension day”—and since important feast days usually started the night before with a vigil, the evening before All Hallows’ gained its own notoriety as All Hallows’ Even or All Hallows’ Eve. All Hallows’ Even was shortened to Hallow-e’en by the 16th century. The word Hallowe’en began to lose its apostrophe in the 18th century, though we still have some evidence for the apostrophized version.
What a terrific collection. I have a few cards that have been saved and passed along, but none as old as these! Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed them.