Halloween! It’s almost time for Halloween! Are you as excited as I am? In fact, I love Halloween so much that, if I could, I would probably send cards like people do at Christmas. Unfortunately that’s not exactly socially acceptable nowadays, but people in Victorian times were sure down with it. In fact, they may have been a little too into the holiday, as evidenced by these strange postcards!
A cop chasing children with a baton? A couple making out in a pumpkin? Whatever, this is Victorian Halloween, people: GO CRAZY. I’m having a hard time deciphering a lot of these, but it probably would be awesome (and really creepy) to send them to friends this month. (Or in, like, July, which would be even creepier.) Head on over to the source to see even more postcards! [via Buzzfeed]
Which of these is weirdest?
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I like the third one a lot. The last one is really freaky but then I guess that fits Halloween well
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I love vintage postcards and I collect them. These are amusing
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I just bought one of the former Miss USA doing a photoshoot with a big ol jack o lantern. it’s pretty creepy
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“All Hallows’ Eve” was probably a pagan holiday originally that wasn’t recognized by Christians until the 1500s and there’s nothing frivolous about the belief that the souls of the dead wandered the earth until that night, but the Reformation changed that. Came the plot to blow up the House of Lords including King James I, Guy Fawkes was caught guarding the exposives on Nov 5th, 1605 so the earlier Catholic-reasoned observance merged and evolved into a revised need to party, no matter what the reason. The ancestors of our early Puritans didn’t want anything to do with either so it’s no wonder “our” Halloween had a different meaning for people when the Victorian era came around. Artists and cartoonists then were no different than they are now and card companies are still in the marketplace. I think a collection of vintage cards is a neat way to look at how our culture has changed over the centuries.
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Merry Halloween. That’s awesome.