Also called Nutcrack Night, nut-burning, Burns' nuts
Naming two nuts for a couple and setting them side by side on the fire on Hallowe'en. If they burn quietly together the match is good; if they jump apart, it is not.
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Take care: Nuts can pop and throw hot shell. Stand back, use tongs, never use a closed fireplace with no screen, and watch for nut allergies among guests.
Burns's long poem lists the games of an Ayrshire Hallowe'en, with notes for readers. Couples set nuts on the fire; one pair burns together, another flies apart, and when Jean sets hers beside her sweetheart's, his flares up the chimney. Burns also describes pulling kale stalks, the blue-clue yarn and eating an apple at a mirror.
Uses: Hazelnuts, Peat fire
In parts of northern England Hallowe'en was simply called Nutcrack Night, from the cracking of nuts and burning them in pairs. Brand and his later editors gathered descriptions of the same game from Scotland and Ireland.
Irish schoolchildren in 1937 to 1939 wrote down Hallowe'en customs from their families, including nuts burned in pairs, a ring in the barmbrack, and the snap-apple. Nut-burning is presented as one game among many on the night.
Hallowe'en (31 October, the eve of All Saints) was in Scotland, Ireland and northern England a favorite night for love divination. Robert Burns wrote 'Halloween' in 1785 and printed it in the Kilmarnock Edition of 1786, with footnotes explaining each custom for readers outside Ayrshire. Burning nuts comes right at the start of the games he describes. Ministers sometimes disapproved, but the games stayed popular.
Antiquarians such as John Brand recorded the same game across Britain, and the north of England named the whole night for it. Irish children documented it in the 1930s Schools' Collection. Emigrants carried these games to North America, where nut-burning faded while apple-bobbing survived. The game needed only a fire and a pocketful of nuts, which made it one of the easiest Hallowe'en tests to keep. Its meaning was simple enough for children to learn and adults to tease each other with.
Melting a little tin (or wax) on New Year's Eve, tipping it into cold water and reading the year ahead from the shape it freezes into.
Drinking loose-leaf tea, swirling the dregs and reading the shapes the leaves leave on the cup. A kitchen-table way to ask about the weeks ahead.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
