Fortune Teller Place Cards

Six tent place cards on one letter sheet. The front of each has a palm chart and a line for the guest’s name. The back deals a fate, drawn in a small arched window like a tarot card, and every card says plainly that it is a parlor game, not a prophecy. They go with the Fortune Teller’s Parlor party blueprint and the fortune teller invitation.

The Six Fates

• I. The Ring: wed within the year
• II. The Coin: wealth in the coming year
• III. The Button: a lifelong bachelor
• IV. Clean Water: your spouse comes to you never wed before
• V. Foul Water: you will wed a widow or widower
• VI. The Empty Dish: no marriage at all

The first three are charms once hidden in colcannon on Halloween. A ring meant marriage within the year and a button a lifelong bachelor (Smithsonian Magazine), and a coin meant wealth in the coming year (Smithsonian Magazine). Both articles note that the meanings varied from place to place. The last three are Burns’ luggies from “Halloween” (1786): a blindfolded guest dips a hand into clean water, foul water or an empty dish, and in the poem Auld Uncle John draws the empty dish three times and throws the lot on the fire (Library of Congress).

Cutting and Folding

Print at actual size and cut along the dashed outer lines. Each card is 4 x 3.5 inches and folds on the dashed midline into a 4 x 1.75 inch tent. The fate side is printed upside down on purpose, so it reads the right way up once the card is folded. Write names in gold or silver pen on the dark version, or in black on the light one.

To play, shuffle the cards face down and let guests draw at the door, or deal them yourself for a table of six and print a second sheet for twelve. The Halloween table setting ideas cover the rest of the table.