Apples have long been an integral part of the Samhain meal, although now they are almost invisible behind the pumpkins, and even one of the old names of the Welsh Calan Gaeaf is the Apple Feast.
During the time associated with the dead and the Otherworld, apples acquire a special symbolism.
One of the names of the otherworldly space where the best of the dead go is Avalon, Isle of Apples, and the magical apple trees of those places have been described many times.
Their branches with fruits sometimes ended up in the world of the living, for example, in “Cormac’s adventure in the Land of Promise” such a branch is described as silver with apples of pure gold.
In other descriptions, these branches can be crystal and with leaves and fruits made of precious stones, and emitting a beautiful melodic ringing, like the best music:
It was so sweet and joyful to listen to the music that the branch emitted, that men suffering from wounds, or women in childbirth, or people in illness fell asleep to the melody that sounded if you shook this branch.
Sometimes they said that these apples are the size of a one-year-old baby’s head, and that they are full of amber juice, sweet as fresh honey. No matter how much you eat from such an apple — it will not decrease, and you will be full from this magical food for many days in a row.
Such apples, for example, were among the magical and wondrous things that Lugh the Many-Skilled possessed, and such an apple was thrown to Connla the Ruddy, son of Conn of the Hundred Battles, by a beautiful maiden from the Other World:
For a month after that, Connla was without food or drink and had no desire to eat any food, only his apple. However, no matter how much he ate, the apple did not diminish, but was still whole.
The apples of those places are the apples of immortality, although they are not intended for the living — only for those who have already crossed the border of the Other World – they gave them deliverance from suffering and a long, carefree life.
However, during Samhain, the boundaries between the worlds are erased, and the branches of the apple trees of Avalon intertwine with the branches of the apple trees of earth, and who can distinguish which apple you are eating?
So there were a lot of apples during the celebration of the Beginning of Winter, and it was believed that each member of the family must receive at least one, bright and beautiful apple. Guests were also given apples with wishes of goodness and luck.
They were eaten, receiving the blessing of the ancestors at the sacred time of the beginning of the year, such an apple could bring a prophetic dream if you put it on a pillow, or be used in fortune telling in another way. Games with apples were preserved for a long time — when you had to manage to bite off an apple suspended on a thread, or let it float in a barrel of water.
Well, now we can also take care that during Samhain there are apples in our homes, consecrated and blessed, for each of our family members. And for those who have already gone beyond the edge.
And — yes: glazed Halloween apples, perhaps, are also from this story.
