Bobbing For Apples For thousands of years, apples have been considered a symbol of love and fertility.
The Romans celebrated their own type harvest festival called Pomona. This gay evening festival was dedicated to Pomona, the goddess of orchards and the harvest (or gardens and fruits) and it occurred around November 1st. As a tribute to the goddess for a bountiful harvest, the ancient Romans celebrated by offering nuts and fruits, particularly apples. Pomona merged with the Celtic festival of Samhain around 50 B.C. when the Romans conquered much of northern Europe. Most likely, our modern tradition of apple bobbing on Halloween stems from Pomona festivities. However, another resource tells us that apple bobbing is derived from the Druidic ceremony Ordeal by Watere. This signifies the passage of soul to the hereafter over the waters that separated them. It used to be called "snapping for apples".Pumpkin Carving Traditionally, the jack-o-lantern was carved from a turnip, potato, or beet and lit with a burning lump of coal or a candle. These lanterns represented the souls of the departed loved ones and were placed in windows or set on porches to welcome the deceased. They also served as protection against malevolent sprits or goblins freed from the dead. Turnips and gourds were not as readily available in the Americas so the pumpkin was used and found to be quite an adequate replacement.
Bonfires During Celtic times, sacred fires and fire rituals marked the solar festival. All village fires but those of Samhain were extinguished and new fires lit from this sacrificial fire, or householders were charged a fee for the fires burning at alters. Fires were used to protect against malevolent spirits and for ritual sacrifices to their gods. Today many Irish celebrations still involve bonfires. In parts of modern Scotland, bonfires called Hallowe'en bleeze are lit and danced around by young people to celebrate the holiday.
Ghost Stories Sacrificial bonfires were used to offer animal sacrifices to the gods as a way of saying thank you to the earth for giving up her bounty at harvest time. The Druids would often read the burnt animal entrails looking for insights into the future. They would offer the villgers information on who’d prosper and who’d die in the coming year. The stories of the prophesies the druids read were told long into the night and would often spread through local villages, thus beginning the modern traditions of telling ghost stories and playing divination (fortune telling) games on Halloween. Today, ghost stories are a staple for Halloween and its spooky festivities.
Fortune Telling Since the earliest recorded times, mankind has wanted to peer into the future. Tons of methods have been employed, many of them depending on the fortune teller having psychic abilities. Several Halloween games are based on fortune-telling practices done by our ancestors. The ancients would cast "lots" with stones, bones, shells or wood in an attempt to tell the future. Witches are thought to be fortune tellers.
Haunted Houses Visiting haunted houses with the expectation of having the crap scared out of you is a fairly modern tradition. I have no researched information on how or when the practice actually started but I can tell you that I'm always glad to participate! After the Irish Potato Famine Immigration to America, Irish immigrants brought many Halloween customs with them. I am assuming that the practice of haunted houses started in the late 1800s to the early 1900s as many wanted to create a more "family oriented" holiday. Haunted Houses may have been a means of connecting the community during Halloween festivities. It should be noted that Halloween was on its way to being commercialized by then so haunted houses may have provided means for raising monies locally as well.