St Catherine's/ St Andrew's Day

This party is one that would be more popular among the YSA wards, especially at BYU.  However, any single young adult, or anyone with single friends, could throw one of these parties and have fun.

Both of these saint days have traditions involving single women finding husbands and getting married.  I will describe each Saint Day separately, with a few ideas on how to implement them for a party.

St. Catherine's Day:

St. Catherine was beheaded on November 25th in 305 AD in Alexandria by Emperor Maxaminus II.  In the tenth century, Nov. 25th became the day of commemoration for St. Catherine, and over the years, the day has become associated with various other saints named Catherine. 

One tradition for St. Catherine's is to dress up and go door to door asking for treats and presents (akin to Halloween).  Thus, a costume party with lots of treats and prizes would be appropriate.

Another tradition, mostly based in France, is for single women to pray for their future husbands.  The celebrations mostly surround women over 25 who aren't yet married (called Catherinettes).  They wear silly hats, in yellow and green, that their friends have made them.  Catherinettes often bond with each other, but are also offered meals by non-Catherinettes to console them.  The silly yellow and green hats would be appropriate if one chooses to go with a costume party. 

As an aside, St. Martin's Day on November 20th is a male alternative to St. Catherine's.

St. Andrew's Day:

St. Andrew's Day is a day when a woman is supposed to be able to magically divine who she will marry and when.  A few traditions for divining this are: pouring hot wax through a keyhole into water, drinking wine and chanting a spell, throwing a clog over one shoulder, sticking papers with potential husbands' names into dough and seeing which will float in water, and sticking names or sticks under the pillow while sleeping.  One last tradition is trying to see the future husband's face by candlelight in water at night.

These traditions may be slightly harder to implement in a casual manner than those of St. Catherine's, but that makes the party even more fun.  You can have a party that more or less experiments with each of these magical methods of foreseeing a future wedding for single women.  Other methods from outside of St. Andrew's Day could also be implemented.  For instance, if a married woman attends, it could be fun to throw a wedding bouquet and see who catches it.  Create your own traditions, as well.  The most important part is that you have fun and find a husband (at least that's what I hear most weeks at church).