America is a melting pot, so it makes sense that our autumn traditions and holidays come from near and far. Read on to discover the real roots behind what makes fall so many people’s favorite season.
What are 10 facts about autumn?
1. Bobbing for apples was a U.K. dating technique
In the U.K. from as early as the 14th century to the 1800s, girls marked apples before dumping them in a barrel of water. As boys would bob for the apples, “future couplings were determined,” per NPR.
It was said that if the boy bit the apple on his first try, “the pairing was fate and they were made for each other.” If he got it on his second try, the “relationship wouldn’t last long.” If it took him three or more shots to get the apple, “the pairing was ill-fated,” according to the Daily Meal.
2. Candy corn was originally called ‘chicken feed’
Since roughly half of Americans were farmers in the 1880s, candy manufacturers produced agriculture-themed sweets for the masses of American farm children.
Goelitz Candy Company found the recipe in 1898 and marketed it as “Chicken Feed,” per History. Since farmers didn’t have the technology to create hybrid corn at that point yet, corn was still widely just animal feed. Thus, candy corn packaging presented a rooster and the words, “King of the Candy Corn Fields.”
Eventually, due to advertising initiatives, the candy became popularized as a Halloween treat.
3. Thanksgiving gave us the TV dinner
Swanson salesman Gerry Thomas thought of the idea for frozen dinners in 1953 after seeing that his company had “260 tons of frozen turkey left over after Thanksgiving, sitting in ten refrigerated railroad cars,” per the Smithsonian. Since the refrigeration in the train cars only worked while in motion, the train moved back and forth between Nebraska and the East Coast until a better plan was hatched.
4. ‘Monster Mash’ was banned in the U.K.
BBC released an article titled, “8 songs banned by the BBC for the strangest of reasons,” in 2017. It explained that “Monster Mash” was banned because “the BBC failed to see the funny side” and viewed lyrics like “it was a graveyard smash” as “too morbid.” While this 1962 song was No. 1 on the American Billboard charts, it didn’t reach the U.K. “until 1973, when it went to No. 3.”
5, Thanksgiving’s date was set to help Great Depression recovery
The specific day and even month to celebrate Thanksgiving varied between presidents until President Abraham Lincoln declared in an 1863 proclamation that it would occur on the last Thursday of November.
However, mid-Depression, Thanksgiving was going to be on the very last day of November. This concerned President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the economy would suffer due to a shortened Christmas season. Thus, a second presidential proclamation was issued moving Thanksgiving to the second to last Thursday in November.
Not all states agreed with this proclamation, with 32 celebrating with the president, and 16 celebrating on the “traditional” last Thursday. This divide continued for two years until Congress set the federal holiday to be the fourth Thursday in November, per the National Archives.
6. Early pumpkin pies had pumpkins as the crust
Americans in New England were obsessed with pumpkins. They “brewed pumpkin ale, they added dried pumpkin to flips, and they stewed pumpkin as vegetable,” per the Library of Congress. Since it grew so naturally, colonists got creative with how to cook it.
One of the earliest New England pumpkin pie recipes “involved filling a hollowed-out pumpkin with spiced, sweetened milk and cooking it directly in a fire,” per History.
By 1796, pumpkin pie largely resembled what we have today. Amelia Simmons, “an American orphan,” published a cookbook including her recipe for “pompkin” pudding. You might try using her recipe the Library of Congress preserved this autumn.
7. Trick-or-treating goes back to the Celts
In what’s now called Ireland, the Celts dressed up like evil spirits to celebrate the end of their year (Nov. 1). They believed that as the year transitioned to the next, “the dead and the living would overlap, and demons would roam the earth again,” according to Smithsonian magazine. Dressing as evil spirits would fool the actual demons, and the living Celt would be left alone.
Christianity spread into Celtic areas in the ninth century. In 1000 A.D., the Catholic Church established Nov. 2 as All Souls’ Day, and it is “widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, church-sanctioned holiday,” per History.
All Souls’ Day and Samhain were celebrated similarly with the public dressing as angels, devils and saints. In Middle English, All Saints’ Day is Alholowmesse (All-hallows) and people began to call the night before, “All-Hallows Eve,” according to History. Thus we have, Halloween.
8. Jack-o-lanterns come from an Irish legend
This fable comes from Celtic Ireland during Samhain, their Oct. 31 holiday marking the new year. On this night, evil spirits roamed the Earth, and in order to protect their homes, families would carve “menacing faces” into turnips and leave them outside, per Irish Geneology.
One version of the story, according to Irish Myth, involves a man named Jack who keeps tricking the devil. First, he invites the devil for a drink and convinces him to shape-shift into a coin to pay for it. Instead of paying for the drink, he puts the coin in his pocket and also sticks in a cross so the devil can’t shape-shift back. He makes a deal with the devil, saying he’ll let him free if he promises to not let him into hell and to leave him alone for a year. The devil agrees and Jack lets him free.
A year later, the devil finds him again and Jack convinces him to climb a tree to eat some delicious fruit. While the devil’s up there, he carves a cross into the trunk and the devil can’t get down. They make another deal with the devil promising that he won’t bother Jack for 10 more years.
In that time, Jack dies and the devil, true to his word, doesn’t let him into hell. However, Jack also isn’t allowed into heaven, so he’s forced to wander the Earth forever. The devil apparently had some sympathy on Jack, because he tossed up a piece of coal so he wouldn’t have to wander in complete darkness. Jack stuck the coal in a carved out turnip, and became “Jack of Lantern.”
9. Greek legend for autumn
The Greek legend of autumn comes from Persephone, goddess of vegetation, per the Salt Wire. She was picking flowers one day when Hades, god of the underworld, fell madly in love with her. He took her back to the underworld with him, making her his queen. Persephone’s mom, Demeter, goddess of the harvest, was so distraught she refused to let anything grow.
Zeus saw that a massive famine was killing everyone on Earth, so he had Persephone be returned to Demeter. However, before Hades let Persephone go, he made her eat some pomegranate. Persephone was unaware of the rule that if anyone ate food from a different realm, they were forced to stay in that realm.
Zeus heard about this and gave Persephone an exception, saying she only had to live with Hades for half the year. Thus, while Persephone was on Earth with her mom, Demeter let things grow (spring and summer) and while Persephone reigned as queen of the underworld, Demeter made all vegetation die (fall and winter).
10. Americans used to celebrate Oct. 31 by sending Halloween cards
Part of this holiday used to involve exchanging seasonal cards with friends and neighbors.
The Henry Ford Museum has a photo of an old Halloween card from 1930 with a witch brewing a ghost in a cauldron. It says, “Ghouls and witches, baths and owls / Hear the ghostly shrieks and howls! / While the night is cold and chill / Witches wander forth at will!”