Hallow's Eve Customs.
Long ago people were more superstitious than they are now. On Hallow's Eve - the night that the fairies and 'pookies' are yet believed to go about - even grown men did not like to go out, or especially to pass a fort, for fear of being seized and taken away, by the fairies.
People played many tricks on that night, many (of) which are only folk lore. I have heard of the following from different people.
The man of the house went out and brought in a sheaf of unthreshed oats. It was placed on the floor and one by one by one the family were blindfolded and brought before the sheaf. Each pulled a straw, and when everybody was supplied, the number of grains on each one's staw straw, were counted. The number of grains on your straw equalled the number of years you would lived.
All the members of the family went to a cabbage garden, blindfolded, and pulled the first heads of cabbage they touch, be it good, or