As the nights grow longer and colder, communities across the UK turn their attention to Halloween and Bonfire Night, with traditions deeply rooted in folklore. While today’s Halloween may be filled with costumes and treats, past celebrations were rich in local customs—from playful pranks to eerie superstitions. Thanks to recordings from the Survey of English Dialects and folklore studies housed at Special Collections at the University of Leeds, we’ve uncovered spooky stories and dialect words that reveal how people once celebrated this time of year.
Halloween Games: Apples, Water, and a Touch of Magic
Halloween was a time for games, often involving apples from the autumn harvest. Across the UK children played apple bobbing—attempting to bite floating apples in a tub of water, hands tied behind their backs. The game was known by different names across regions: “dookie-apple night” in Newcastle, “snap apple” in the Midlands, and “duck apple” in Liverpool.
Other variations of this game were the challenge of trying to bite an apple, or if you were very lucky, a treacle scone or bun, suspended on a string. Again, hands were forbidden, making it a test of skill and determination to take a bite before the apple or baked good swung out of reach.
Listen to Emma Vickers of Burscough, Lancashire and school children from Leeds discuss Halloween games.
In Cornwall, children would place apples under their pillows on Hallantide, 1st November, believing that eating them the next morning would bring good luck for the year ahead.
Listen to Emma discussing treacle buns.
Emma Vickers, Burscough, 1961 (LAVC/SRE/A001r)
School children from Leeds discussing Mischief Night and apple bobbing.
School Children, Leeds, 1979 (LAVC/SRE/A052)
