Lost Halloween Traditions That Prove the Holiday Used to be All About Getting Hitched

According to fruit historian Joan Morgan, co-author of The New Book of Apples, early settlers of America brought with them European customs that stemmed from the age-old belief that apples were symbols of fertility. One lost Halloween tradition that springs from this idea involved young women covertly marking apples before dropping them into a tub of water. Men would "bob" for the apples; future "matches" were foretold depending on whose apple a man snagged.