Leap, Bite, Dodge: The Victorian Game With Fire

Bobbing for apples sounds harmless until you hear what came next. At 19th-century Halloween parties, hosts wanted something with a little more danger, and they had a candle to spare.

The game was called Snap-Apple, sometimes Snap-Apple Night. A wooden stick hung from the ceiling by a string, and that was the whole contraption, with no moving parts or machinery to speak of.

On one end of the stick went an apple. On the other end, a lit candle was fastened right where a player's face would swing past. Then somebody gave the stick a hard spin.

Players stood with hands behind their backs and tried to catch the apple in their teeth as it whirled by. Miss the timing and the stick kept turning, bringing the flame around to meet you.

The penalty was a face full of hot wax, a singed eyebrow or a scorched bit of hair. Guests laughed about it, and the fumbles were half the entertainment of the evening.

Apple games like this were tied to old autumn harvest customs in Britain and Ireland, and many carried romantic fortunes. Whoever snagged the apple was often said to be next in line for luck in love, which raised the stakes for the brave.

The game is in Halloween books of the period, and it faded as safety standards rose. Bobbing for apples survived because the worst outcome is soggy hair, though fire-and-fruit parties were once perfectly respectable.