Fall officially began last month, but October is the month I always associate with the changing of the seasons from summer activities to those that announce Fall and the Harvest Season has arrived. Deciduous trees paint the horizon in warm colors before swirling to the ground. Halloween preparations are underway, and black cats are understandably nervous as witchy images fly on magical brooms. In some places, hayrides under a full moon are an activity hearkening back to earlier times.
Bobbing for Apples
Bobbing for apples, however, is a custom often overlooked in modern times. For one thing, the activity is potentially messy if the apple tub is too full of water.
Ripe apples are symbol of fall abundance, but the custom of retrieving an apple from a tub of water with one’s teeth, or using said teeth to separate an apple from a string seems a bit far-fetched. So, here’s the story behind this autumn activity.
Bobbing for apples is a custom that stretches back to our Celtic and Roman cultural ancestors. At the end of October, Celts celebrated the festival of Samhain. Participants lit large bonfires and tied apples to evergreen branches.
The Celts believed apples were a symbol of love, fertility, divination, and magic. And it became a custom for young people to try and bite into an apple that was either floating in water or hanging from a string as part of a matchmaking game in which the first one to bite into an apple would be the next person allowed to marry.
Meanwhile, the Romans had autumn customs based around the goddess Pomona who ruled over orchards and harvests. When the Romans arrived in Briton, their customs merged with Celtic traditions.
Apples & Courtship
There were various apple bobbing customs. In one, the apples had young men’s names on them, and young women took turns trying to snag the apple with the name of a preferred partner.
- If she snagged the apple on her first try, the relationship was off to a good start.
- If she snagged it on the second try, sparks would fly but the relationship would fizzle out.
- If she tried a third time and snagged the apple, it wasn’t worth the trouble, because no relationship would blossom.
In the Irish game of snap-apple, players lunged at apples hanging from strings. Single men and women competed to determine who would marry next. The first to snag an apple would marry soon. In the painting above, lads in the foreground bob for apples while the ladies in the back may be trying to snag a hanging apple.
How to Bob for Apples
In contemporary games, most often at Halloween parties, five or more apples are placed in a shallow bowl of water which is just over half full. Players take turns, using only their mouths to dunk their heads in the water, bite an apple, and remove it from the tub. The player with the fastest time wins.
Snagging an apple with your teeth can be tricky. The stem is the easiest part of the apple to bite, as the illustration on the left demonstrates.
Some say the trick is to use your face to push the apple to the bottom of the hopefully shallow tub or push it to the side. Either method may provide enough leverage to make it easier to snag the wet fruit.
I think I’ll skip the bobbing this year, and wait for the pie.
Uncle Wiggily’s Apple Roast
Uncle Wiggily is an elder rabbit whose adventures in Woodland are the subject of a 1919 children’s book. In this excerpt, Uncle Wiggily is at a Halloween party.
Nurse Jane Fuzzy Fuzzy, the nice muskrat lady housekeeper, brought in a tub full of water. It was set in the middle of the room and some apples were floated on top of the water, like toy ships.
“You may duck first for an apple, Jackie,” said Uncle Wiggily to the little puppy dog chap.
Jackie knelt down by the tub and put his front paws behind his back. For it isn’t fair to use your paws when you try to catch a floating apple in your teeth.
Just as Jackie was leaning over the tub, his brother, Peetie, slyly gave him a push and Jackie’s head went under the water.
“Now Peetie, you mustn’t play any more tricks on your brother when he is trying to bite his apple,” said Uncle Wiggily, after Jackie had been dried off from the apple tub.
“No, I won’t touch him!” said Peetie, and then Jackie got hold of his apple in his teeth.
The apples were swinging by long strings, and it is hard to bite one unless you use your paws or your hands. But that isn’t allowed. Sammie Littletail was banged in the eye and Johnnie Bushytail on the nose. But it was lots of Halloween fun!
Illustration from Uncle Wiggily’s Apple Roast , 1919
Uncle Wiggily’s Apple Roast, or How Nurse Jane’s Pin Cushion Fooled the Skuddlemagoon and Uncle Wiggle’s Hallowe’en Party. Also How He Helped Jack Frost. Text by Howard R. Garis. Illustrations by Lang Campbell. 1919.
COMING SOON!
The Life & Times of Sarah Good, Accused Witch
Illustrations & A Few Sources
Witch riding a broomstick with a black cat, 1908; Hayride, Port Dover 1919; Apple Bobbing, 1950; Bonfire sparks by TwilightLillez; Pomona & Cupid by Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen the Younger; Snap-Apple Night by Daniel Maclise, 1833; Halloween Pleasures, 1911; Drawing of apple pie, 1886. “Why do we bob for apples on Halloween?” Irish Myths. Alison Richards. “The Secret, Steamy History of Halloween Apples.” NPR. Oct. 31, 2013.