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Apples—Apples are probably the single most important food item associated with Halloween; they are featured in GAMES (primarily BOBBING FOR APPLES), FORTUNE-TELLING, FOODS ranging from candied apples to apple dumplings, and popular seasonal TOYS such as apple-head dolls. They have served as decoration and small JACK-O’-LANTERNS, and in the case of SNAP-APPLE NIGHT, apples are even a part of one name for Halloween.

Although the significance of apples in Halloween is often attributed to a Roman harvest deity called POMONA and her festival, the fruit’s holiday importance more likely stems from both Celtic beliefs and its timing as a harvest food. Apples were held in nearly as much esteem by the CELTS and their DRUIDS as oak trees were. In Celtic mythology, the sacred tree Mugna was a yew that bore three kinds of fruit: the ACORN, the apple and the NUT. Apples were a sacred fruit in the Celtic otherworld (the Celtic otherworld was Ynys Avallach, the “isle of the apples,” and was thought to exist off the west coast of Ireland); one of these fruits could provide immortality. In one hero story centering on FINN MACCUMAL, he encounters Dercc Corra mac hUi Daighre (“the Peaked Red One,” also known as “the Man in the Tree,”) a magical being who holds a bronze vessel in his left hand from which he produces nuts and apples. In another mythological tale, the hero Bran is lured to the otherworld when a goddess offers him an apple tree branch. Some Celtic mythology may have been transferred to the King Arthur legends—when Arthur dies he goes to the island of Avalon, a name that means “appleisland.”

Games involving apples have been the central event at Halloween PARTIES for at least several centuries (a game of bobbing for apples is even depicted in a fourteenth-century manuscript, the Luttrell Psalter). In addition to bobbing for apples and snap-apple, apples were also used in a variation of the Easter egg hunt—apples and nuts were hidden around a house or grounds, and prizes were awarded to whoever could find the most. In another game, an apple was hung from a string overhead, then a chair or tall box was placed beneath it; contestants had to keep one hand on the chair or box, run around it as fast as possible seven times, then try to strike the apple with a stick. In an American combination of eating and gaming, two persons kneel, one on each side of a chair on which two apples are placed. With their hands tied behind their backs, the contestants must see who can eat the most in three minutes.

Apples figure prominently in Halloween fortune-telling. In addition to APPLE SEEDS and APPLE PARINGS, fortunes might be indicated by an apple game’s first winner (i.e., the first to successfully bob for an apple). In one English custom, children put an apple under their pillow on Halloween to bring happy DREAMS; a variation of this suggests that an apple successfully secured by bobbing should be placed under the pillow to reveal one’s future beloved in dreams on Halloween night. A variation of the midnight MIRROR fortune-telling custom has the girl eating an apple at MIDNIGHT on Halloween as she brushes her hair before the mirror. In another version, a girl stands before a mirror and slices an apple into NINE slices; she holds each slice on the tip of the knife before eating, and her future husband will finally appear to ask for the last slice (a slight variant to this custom states that she throws the ninth slice over her left shoulder, and at each slice says “In the name of the Father and the Son.”) In a more complicated version, a girl should stand in front of a mirror, slice an apple, and hold each piece on the point of the knife over her left shoulder while looking into the mirror and combing her hair. The WRAITH of her future husband will appear in the mirror reaching for a slice of apple.

A custom from St. John, New Bruns – wick in Canada involved hanging an apple at chin height, rubbing the chin with saliva, and then banging the chin against the apple; if the apple stuck to the chin, it foretold a faithful marriage. One custom that combines fortunetelling and a game involved twirling apples hung from strings near a fire; the order in which the apples dropped from the strings would foretell who would marry first, second, etc. (whoever possessed the last apple to fall would remain unmarried). Apples have appeared in many forms as Halloween party food. Apple cider (usually served with DOUGHNUTS) is a tradition at American Halloween CELEBRATIONS. Candied and caramel apples are found at many outdoor Halloween celebrations. Apples are also popular in Irish homes on Halloween, found in pies, tarts, dumplings and apple pudding (the latter made of potatoes, flour and apples, with small fortune-telling tokens such as a ring, a coin and a thimble sometimes added).

Apples have also served as Halloween gifts: Until at least 1890, Cornish greengrocers always placed extra orders of fine Allan apples during the fall season, since they were a traditional gift for children on Halloween (although it was also recorded that Allan apples were sold on the Saturday nearest to Halloween, and given to every member of the family, to be eaten for luck, or—for older girls— placed under the pillow to induce dreams of future husbands.)

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The Halloween Encyclopedia Second Edition written by Lisa Morton © 2011 Lisa Morton. All rights reserved