Oct. 30, Monday — Charles Atlas born, 1893. Emily Post born, 1872.
Oct. 31, Tuesday — Halloween. Faces on Mount Rushmore completed, 1941.
Nov. 1, Wednesday — All Saints. First medical school for women, Boston, 1848.
Nov. 2, Thursday — All Souls. Marie Antoinette born, 1755. Moon runs low.
Nov. 3, Friday — Detroit-Windsor auto tunnel, 1930. Great Vermont flood, 1927.
Nov. 4, Saturday — Tomb of King Tut discovered, 1922. Conjunction of Uranus and Moon.
Nov. 5, Sunday — "Fawkes Plot never forgot," 1605. Roy Rogers born, 1912. Gulliver's ship Antelope wrecked on shore of Lilliput, 1699.
Ask the Old Farmer's Almanac: In the expression, "Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite," what's tight got to do with it? — H.P., Belmont, Mass.
Answer: The closer you are to the floor, the more vulnerable you are to bedbugs (Cimex lecturlarius), a wingless, bloodsucking insect with a flat, reddish body and a telltale odor. In the days of the old rope beds, when the ropes began to sag toward the floor the bedding was more prone to infestation by crawling insects. Tightening the ropes that held the bedding aloft raised the whole affair so that it was more immune to creeping creatures.
By the same token, tightening one's bedclothes around oneself might help deter those same creatures from entering by way of sheets that extended to the floor. Being tucked in tightly offered a better security, in the same manner as having the ropes tightly stretched and taut.
Some old-style beds not only had bed staves laid across the underframe but also had side staves to keep the bed clothes from rolling off. Before the modern-day mattresses, with more form than the old bed tickings or feather beds, this was more important than it is today. The old side staves were sometimes used to beat the bedding in order to clean it and plump it for the next day's use, as well. "As you made your bed, so you must lie in it," was the old saying, and if you were lax in your housekeeping and your bed was made too loosely, then you might have a sleepless night dealing with the vermin.
Ask the Old Farmer's Almanac: Who in Sam Hill was Samhain? — L.A., Groton, Vt.
Answer: In the Celtic calendar, Samhain meant "summer's end" and the spirit of Samhain was celebrated by making offerings to the dead and thanking the summer god for the fine weather and continued light that was just drawing to a close. It was believed that on All Hallow's Eve or Samhain, the ghosts of the dead were given a brief chance to visit the living before the long, cold winter to come. Bonfires were lighted and lanterns were made by using hollowed-out potatoes or turnips to carry coals from the fire, similar to our modern-day jack-o'-lanterns. These beacons lighted the way for the wandering spirits who visited on Samhain.
If it was unseasonably cold at Halloween, then the weatherlore predicts a period of unseasonably warm weather, or Indian Summer, around St. Martin's (Nov. 11, also Veterans Day) until about Nov. 20. In Sweden, an earlier November warm spell is called the "All Saints Rest." If so, then our usual contrary weather on its heels might be called the "All Saints Come Marching In." Use the unseasonably warm time for those last-minute winter preparations. Have you had your chimney cleaned? Your furnace air ducts and filters checked? Your car winterized? Is your wood all split, or as near to it as you're apt to get? If you're left with a few, huge unsplittables, put aside the splitting wedge and maul, and think toward Christmas. Everyone needs a yule log of exemplary proportions.
Ask the Old Farmer's Almanac: Have you heard of the custom of throwing nuts into a fire on Halloween? — H.D., Sakonnet, R.I.
Answer: Sure! It's one of many ways to find out the identity of your one true love. Or so some thought, anyway. The idea was that if a young maiden fancied two young gentlemen, or if they both fancied her and she couldn't decide, then she'd place two hazelnuts into the edge of the bonfire. Each one would be marked with the name of one of the suitors. If the nut burst apart or flew out from the fire, that was a dark sign for that young man. On the other hand, if the nut remained and burst brightly into flame, as if with passion, then that was the nut — er, young man — for her to marry, and the thought was that she might marry him within the year.
By some accounts, All Hallow's Eve was called Nut Crack Night, just for this event. We suppose other sorts of divination games could be played in the same way, but watch out for those hot, flying nuts. There's enough danger about on Halloween without adding red hot missiles to the mix.
Web site: www.almanac.com © Yankee Publishing