The lovelorn would peel an apple in one long, unbroken piece and throw it over his or her shoulder while being spun around. They also believed that apple peels held the secret to true love. Romans believed that the first person to catch a bobbing apple with his or her teeth would be the first to marry in the new year. Have you ever bobbed for apples? The Roman festival for Pomona, the goddess of fruit and orchards, was celebrated around November 1. Superstitious people believed that these women flew out of their chimneys on broomsticks and terrorized the countryside with their magical deeds. Such a woman would curl up near a fireplace and go into a trancelike state by chanting, meditating, or using hallucinogenic herbs. Why are witches a common costume on Halloween? In the Middle Ages, women labeled as witches (from the Anglo-Saxon word wicce, or “wise one”) practiced divination. Over time, All Hallows’ Eve was shortened to Halloween! Just as November 1 was once called All Hallows’ Day, October 31 was called All Hallows’ Eve. November 2 brings All Souls’ Day, a holy day set aside for honoring the dead and departed. Years later, the Roman Catholic Church designated November 1 as All Saints’ Day, in honor of all Catholic saints. It was celebrated with a mass, bonfires, and people costumed as angels and saints parading through the villages. This day evolved into All Hallows’ Day or Allhallowmas, “hallow” meaning “to sanctify.” The ancient Celts believed that the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was at its thinnest during Samhain, thereby making it the ideal time to communicate with the deceased and to divine the future.Īfter the Roman Empire took over Celt-occupied lands in the 1st century A.D., the Romans combined many of the Celtic traditions, including Samhain, with their own.
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