February 13th: St Valentine's Eve

St Valentine's eve – one of several dates in the year when it is traditional to try and divine who your future spouse will be (other dates include Halloween and Midsummer's day).

1. Putting any of the following under your pillow leads to dreams of future spouses: a piece of wedding cake; a piece of Cheese that has been passed through a Wedding ring; a mirror; daisies; Mistletoe. Alternatively, such dreams can be brought on by: wearing nightclothes inside out; brushing your hair three times in a mirror before bed; rubbing lemon peel on the headboard; eating a thimbleful of Salt or a salted herring; putting a sprig of Rosemary in one shoe and a sprig of Thyme in the other, sprinkle with Water three times and leave at the foot of the bed.
2. In England in the mid 18th century girls would pin 5 bay-leaves to their pillows, one in each corner and one in the middle. Then they would hard-boil an Egg, take out the yolk, fill the hole with salt, and eat it, shell and all, at bedtime, and then go to bed without speaking to anyone or drinking. The person who brought them water in their dreams would be their future husband.
3. Another custom was for a girl to write potential lovers' names on pieces of Paper, roll them up in clay, and put them into water: the first that floated was their valentine. 
4. Place two Hazelnuts side by side on a grate over a fire, to represent two sweethearts. If they burn together, the couple will marry. If one nut cracks or jumps off the grate, however, this means one of the pair will be unfaithful.
5. To discover the name of a future spouse, peel an Apple without the peeling breaking. Swing the peel three times around your head and then drop it. The letter the peel resembles when it falls is the first letter of your true love's name.
6. Another way to establish who you are going to marry using an apple is to say the names of all the likely candidates while twisting the stem of an apple. You will marry the one whose name you are saying when the stem falls off. Alternatively, recite the alphabet and the letter you get to when the stem falls off is the future true love's initial.
7. An old Valentine's Eve custom was for single man and women to put their names in a hat for members of the opposite sex to draw, and whoever's name a person pulled out would be their partner for the Valentine's celebrations, and possibly beyond!
8. Go into a cabbage patch with your eyes blindfolded or closed and pull up a Cabbage. Look at its roots. Straight roots mean a handsome husband, crooked roots mean an ugly husband, and if there is a lot of soil clinging to the roots you will marry a rich man.
9.  Blond, brunette or redhead? There are a number of ways to divine the colour of a future spouse's hair: finding a hair on the heel of your shoe, especially if you just heard a dove cooing and turned around three times before looking; when it is raining and the sun is shining at the same time, pick up a stone and look for a hair; run around the house three times, touching the same rock each time – then look for a hair to match that of your future spouse. If you don't find a hair, then presumably that means either you will stay single or you'll marry someone who is bald!
10. Take four Onions and name each of them after a prospective partner. Put them under your bed. The one which sprouts first will is the one you will marry.