Bobbing for apples was one of the things I used to look forward to every Halloween as a child. We would do it at least once each year, heads splashing in the water, putting bite marks in apples that had other people’s bite marks in them. Fun days!
Here is a description of bobbing for apples in a newspaper article from 1914.
Around the Apple Tub
No Halloween party is complete without the large tub filled with cold water, its surface crowded with the reddest of rosy cheeked apples. Some one should be selected as manager of the sports, as guests, in their excitement, need to be regulated and controlled, or they may tumble headlong into the tub!
A line should be formed, and each should kneel in turn and bob or duck their heads down into the water, trying to secure an apple with the teeth. Frequently the resisting apple has to be pursued to the very bottom of the tub, but this makes the game all the more exciting, although the clothes are apt to get utterly soaked.
To prevent this, the wise hostess will lay in a stock of waterproof bibs for the girls, while the men should remove collars and ties and coats.
Source: Evening Public Ledger. Newspaper. October 31, 1914.
