Look! on the skin
The symbol of what lies within.
Now turn red to tempt Snow White
To make her hungry for a bite...
--the Wicked Queen, Walt Disney's Snow White, 1937
There's nothing like a fresh fall apple. Crisp, juicy, sweet or tart, whatever your preference. Think of pick-your-own orchards, fresh apple pie, baked apples, candy apples, caramel apples, apple bobbing at Hallowe'en, Mrs. Prindable's chocolate-covered apples at Thanksgiving and Christmas...
As one of the quintessential fall fruits, apples are also associated with Hallowe'en. In generations past, trick-or-treaters might receive an apple from a neighbor, or a homemade treat, rather than the packaged candies we distribute today. Children might bob for apples at a Hallowe'en party. Earlier in the month, those of us who were Jewish would have put candles in hollowed-out apples mounted on hand-held flags to celebrate Simchat Torah.
Yet the apple, that very symbol of health and intelligence, has often been maligned in life and literature. There's the typical Biblical translation that calls Adam and Eve's forbidden fruit an "apple" (it was more likely an apricot or a pomegranate). There are the golden apples tossed in Atalanta's path to win her from her vow of virginity and allegiance to Artemis. And of course, there's the story of Snow White and the red, poisoned apple.
The apples for which we bobbed as children often had coins buried in them. While the prospect of extra money was exciting, it was possible to injure a tooth on -- or accidentally swallow -- a coin. The fruit itself suffered from the "yuck" factors of dirty, germy coins and the brown bruising that surrounded their insertion sites, and was often discarded. Our teachers told us each year horror stories of children who died from choking on razor blades that some (epithet deleted) had inserted in Trick-or-Treat apples. Teachers' suggested remedies ranged from having parents inspect all treats before allowing their children to partake, to summarily discarding anything that did not come in a factory-sealed wrapper. Years later, the razors morphed into pins found in those same factory-sealed candies. Soon, any "treat" one acquired seemed as likely as not to be a "trick".
For many of us with diabetes, Hallowe'en does not require sharps or poisons to ply its pernicious trade upon us. For some, the unadorned apple alone causes glucose levels to shoot into the stratosphere; for others, the "fun size" Snickers bar keeps us there for hours. Put the two together, and one might really believe the caramel coating was designed to disguise the poor quality of the often-bruised fruit beneath, or that the unbelievably-bright-red candy apple is really and truly the work of Snow White's evil stepmother.
In our house, we've taken the practical step of replacing candy treats with coin. This allows us to support childen's Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF efforts as well as give them something towards a more appropriate treat than stale candy. Other families choose to give Hallowe'en-themed school supplies and novelties that can be inexpensively purchased from craft store chains like Michael's and A. C. Moore or online vendors like the Oriental Trading Company. Still others choose to replace trick-or-treating -- especially for young children and teens -- with in-home Hallowe'en parties.
Whatever your choice of treats, be alert and be safe, watch out for kids (and pranksters), and enjoy the season.
