Its that time of year

Pumpkins carved

Homes decorated with spooky figures

Halloween costume parties

Children trick or treating

Bags of candy being handed out

My earliest memories of Halloween are very different

As a child growing up in northern England

There was no trick or treat back then

No constumes

We did not even call it Halloween

It was duck apple night

A large tub filled with water

Apples floating on the surface

We would kneel over the tub, hands behind our back

Trying to capture an apple with our teeth

It was an evening of family fun and we all got soaked

Duck apple or apple bobbing can be traced back to the the Roman invasion of Britain in 55BC

The Romans merged their religious celebrations with Celtic Britain

The apple tree, which was a Roman symbol of plenty (Pomona) was introduced in to Britain

The apple floating in water was used to see if an unmarried person was due to be married

The first person to bite in to the apple would be the next person to be married

Girls who ‘bobbed’ i.e bit in to a floating apple, would place the bitten apple under their pillow to dream of their future lover