Did you know that the Celts celebrated their new year on November 1st, and they believed that on that particular night, the boundaries between the living and the dead opened up. This helped Druids, or Celtic priests, make predictions about the future to guide them through the coming winter.
In late October, the Romans used to celebrate Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. (Not Pomona, Rockland County, NY!) This celebration introduced the tradition of bobbing for apples may have popped up because the symbol for Pomona is the apple.
During the late 19th century, young ladies thought that if they sat in a dark room holding a candle in front of a mirror while eating an apple or brushing their hair, a vision of their future husband would appear over their shoulder.
Perhaps the 19th century version of online dating. Both can be equally spooky!
During All Souls’ Day in England, beggars would go from house to house asking for food. They would be given soul cakes in exchange for the promise that they would pray for the family’s deceased loved ones. Later, children took up the tradition and it evolved into trick-or-treating.
Colcannon is a potato dish filled with fortune-telling charms and eaten in Ireland at Halloween. However, barnbrack is the traditional Irish loaf cake made with dried fruits and stuffed with charms, usually a ring, a coin and a thimble. The ring predicts romance, the coin foretells prosperity and the thimble means you’ll never marry.
The Italians make a bean-shaped cake called Fave dei Morti, meaning beans of the dead. This is also a day where g
entlemen propose to their future brides. They put the ring in a small box and then pack that in a larger oval box filled with beans of the dead.If you visit Spain during Halloween, you can fill your belly with bones of the holy. Also called pan de muerto, “bread of the dead,” this anise-seed pastry is shaped into round skulls with bone-like strips attached and covered with orange glaze.
A full 25 percent of America’s candy is sold at Halloween, and U.S. households spend roughly 6 million dollars each year on trick-or-treat supplies.
Time to buy your kids a new toothbrush!
Have fun and stay safe this Halloween...
Check out the list of Halloween events in the Hudson Valley Area by clicking Here
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