"halloween foods" news and stories

While cold-hearted Halloween detractors might blame candy corn and bite-size chocolate bars for bulging kids' waistlines and tooth decay, holiday celebrants once held Halloween foods responsible for determining whom they'd marry and whether their spouses would be true.

The notion of eating Halloween foods apparently never occurred to many 19-century Americans, who instead used nuts and apples to engage the occult. The nation's first Halloweeners burnt walnuts, scattered apple peels and chomped on apples hung from strings, all in hopes of figuring out what their future held.

Halloween got its start as Samhain, a pagan autumn holiday in the British Isles marked by "mumming," or the practice of wandering from house to house and trading performances for food. Feasting -- especially on freshly harvested apples and nuts -- remained a central activity as the festival evolved into Halloween: Apple potato cake, perhaps reflecting back to the day's near-coincidence with a Roman celebration honoring the orchard goddess Pomona, was among the most popular foods. Celebrants also carved turnips and tromped into cabbage fields, believing the shape of a root plucked on Halloween would presage the shape of one's spouse.

More on strange and outdated Halloween traditions of the past, after the jump.