Halloween History Countdown - Day 12

From Halloween: An American Holiday, An American History by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne:

"American harvest get-togethers called play parties were a more likely precursor to American Halloween.

The play party was a public, nondenominational event, and whole families attended. It could be held at any time, but the first of the season as usually held in the early dark of late autumn. The apple harvest had just ended and both apples and nuts were plentiful for play party food. Ghost stories were an integral part of this autumn celebration, and tales of the ancestral dead were told and retold by elders to a spellbound crowd. Whereas in the early colonial days divinations were done privately and in secret, communities now gathered together to play fortunetelling games. Dancing, singing, stomping, and cheering went on well into the night - if not the next morning - and some later play parties featured a school pageant of sorts."