Jazz apple's UK champion Worldwide Fruit is embracing the Halloween festivities this year by bringing back some of the event’s traditional apple-orientated games.
As well as enjoying them in their customary guise, WWF will be demonstrating to the public how much fun Jazz apples can be.
Apple Bobbing is an old favourite but Pairing Up is a lesser-known extension of the wet experience, where players must peel the apple from tip-to-top in one long winding piece, once they have retrieved it from the bowl.
Things then get even more complicated as each contestant must swing the peel over their head three times and sing the following rhyme before dropping it behind them: “Paring, pairing long and green, Tell my fate for Halloween.”
Legend has it that the peel will fall into the shape of a letter - the first in the name of the person they are destined to marry.
Apple swings is another competitive game, which involves people racing to eat apples dangling from strings, again with their hands tied behind their backs. And WWF suggests the proceedings can be made even messier by covering the apples in honey or chocolate sauce.
Meanwhile, for more adult consumers, Apple Pass requires teams of equal numbers to line up and pass apples between them without using their hands. Alternatively, for those wishing to get into the mythical spirit in a more sedate fashion, the Apple Seed game involves cutting apples and counting the seeds in each half to determine one’s fortune.
According to tradition, two seeds signifies an early marriage; three, an inheritance; four, great wealth; five, a trip across the ocean; six, fame; and seven that all the person’s wishes would come true.
WWF’s media push will also detail the historical significance of apples in celebrating Old Hallow’s Eve.
The party game has been an integral part of Halloween since the turn of the 20th century but apples have had a special significance since the Romans invaded Britain.
Traditionally, on October 31 the Roman people held a huge celebration to honour the goddess of fruit - Pomona, to thank her for the harvest. Among the offerings laid before her would be apples, which have played an important part on this day ever since.
