Bobbing for Answers

Continuing on with our fall traditions, we’ve got bobbing for apples. Which, to be honest, I always thought was fairly gross.

Come on friends! Stick your face in this bowl/bucket/trough/whatever filled with water of an unfortunate temperature and try to snag an apple that has doubtless already been licked by someone else!

No, thank you.

But, apparently my deep-seated desire not to contract germs from soggy apples has left me woefully uninformed about the future marital bliss of myself and those around me.

Curious as to which of your friends will be the next to tie the knot?

One legend claims that the first person to snag an apple without the aid of their hands will be the next to marry. Another says that the person who got the apple was fated to marry the person who owned said apple.

How about just the general state of future relationships?

Grab that apple on the first try and you are destined for true love. For those not quite as talented at the bobbing, sorry friends, a lot of romantic fickleness awaits you.

And the predictions don’t end once you’ve finally caught that salvia covered apple. Peel in and throw the skin over your shoulder. It’ll land in the shape of your true love’s initial. Or, you could stick it under your pillow, guaranteeing dreams of your future love (or a night of no sleep at all. Because you’ve got a big lumpy apple under your pillow. But definitely one of the two).

But, as it turns out, not all apple bobbing superstitions are focused on marriage.

I just read a tale claiming that by surviving an ordeal by water (and who wouldn’t call fishing around for an apple in a bucket of water in which a bunch of other people have dunked their hair an ordeal?) and capturing an apple, you can gain passage to the land of the fairies. This is only possible on Halloween though, as the boundary between our world and that of magic is weaker than at any other point.

Now, I’m willing to deal with uncertainty surrounding my future marital state (who doesn’t love a good mystery?). But, a chance to visit the fairies? I may need to rethink my position on this whole icky endeavor, at least on the 31st. 

What about you? Feel like bobbing?