As they step in they are surprised to be greeted by some one dressed as a ghost who extends his hand which is covered with wet salt.” Another from 1903 instructed hosts to dress like a “shade,” or a resident of the underworld, to welcome guests:Īs guests enter house, barn or cellar, they are welcomed by a Shade who introduces them to another Shade by saying: 'This is the shade of my grandfather”. One book from 1912 recommended hosts “have the hall totally dark with the door ajar and no one in sight to welcome the guests. And from the moment their guests arrived, the spook factor was turned way up. They sent weird invitations, with the text rhyming, written backward, or encased in a walnut shell.
No one knew how to party like the Halloween hosts of yesteryear.
