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St Agnes' Eve
On 20 January, young women in older English custom fasted and went to bed backwards so as to dream of their future husbands.
About St Agnes' Eve
St Agnes' Eve was one of the traditional nights for love divination in England and Scotland. Girls were told to go to bed without supper, undress in silence and not look behind them, and then they might see the future husband in a dream. Variations include walking backwards while eating a dumb cake, or pinning a lover's name on a pillow. John Keats wrote a poem, The Eve of St Agnes, which fixed the custom in the literary mind. Practices like these were mostly the preserve of young women, who treated them as part serious and part game, and they had faded by the early twentieth century.
Also part of it, and being written: Agnes of Rome (The saint whose vigil it was.), Divination (Love divination as a type.), Oneiromancy (Dreams as signs.).
Written by the EveryJaadu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Agnes of Rome" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family, and are described as belief and practice. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.