> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.ciaran-murray.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Snap-Apple Night: a Halloween run-sheet from Cork - URL: https://www.ciaran-murray.com/snap-apple-night/ - Published: 2026-10-29T09:30:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-29T09:29:59.000Z - Description: A tub half-full of water in the middle of a kitchen floor in Blarney, and the apples floating in it. That's Halloween, written down in 1938. - Author: Ciaran Murray - Tags: People & Craft A tub half-full of water in the middle of a kitchen floor in Blarney, and the apples floating in it. That's Halloween, written down for the Schools' Collection of the Irish Folklore Commission in the late 1930s. ## Before the pumpkins Before it was pumpkins, it was apples. Before it was trick-or-treat, it was guising. And before any of that it was Samhain, the first night of winter on the Irish and Scottish calendar. The National Museum of Ireland puts it plainly: the festival of Samhain, the first day of winter, was marked on 1 November, and fruit and nuts featured in the children's games on the night before, along with the marriage-divination games the grown-ups pretended not to take seriously. ![A bonfire burning on open ground at dusk.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7e/0c/7e0cc755-8e3f-401d-be56-1e2d9109123e/content/images/2026/10/1-body-3.jpg) Photo: Dominic Sansotta on Unsplash I grew up with it. My first job was in an orchard in the hills above Cork. My grandfather's apple trees near Midleton, planted nearly fifty years ago, still bear, and the apples go into juice and pie. In Cork the night was Snap-Apple Night, and the Schools' Collection on dúchas.ie has the rules from the children who played it. In Blarney: "A tub half-full of water is placed in the middle of the kitchen, and the apples are put into it." In Kanturk: "An apple is tied to a cord and hung from the ceiling." Hands behind your back, and the whole kitchen laughing at you. ![Red apples in a wooden crate in an orchard.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7e/0c/7e0cc755-8e3f-401d-be56-1e2d9109123e/content/images/2026/10/2-body-7.jpg) Photo: Martina De Marchena on Unsplash ## The painting In October 1832 the Cork painter Daniel Maclise went to a Halloween party in Blarney given by Father Matthew Horgan, a priest and antiquary. The next summer he showed the painting at the Royal Academy in London: *Snap Apple Night, or All-Hallow Eve*. The apple on the string is in the middle of it, and the whole parish is around it. The painting itself is in a private collection; the Met in New York holds the engraving, and you can see it online. That's the inheritance. Two hundred years of a game, written down by children, painted by a Corkman, and still played in kitchens. ## The run-sheet Here's the craft part. A bar on Halloween doesn't need a fog machine or a DJ in a cape. It needs the old games done properly, and a team who can tell the story in one sentence as the glass goes down. ![A warm, lamplit corner of an old bar.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7e/0c/7e0cc755-8e3f-401d-be56-1e2d9109123e/content/images/2026/10/3-body-7.jpg) Photo: Vlad Patana on Unsplash **The apple on the string.** One apple on a string from a hook over the bar. One go per round bought. Hands behind the back. The whole room watches, and the whole room buys a round to have a go. **The barmbrack at nine.** One brack, one ring baked into it, cut at nine o'clock by the manager with the story told first: the ring means you marry within the year. Whoever finds it gets the next drink on the house. The Schools' Collection from Kanturk has the custom word for word. ![A fruit loaf, part sliced, on a cloth.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7e/0c/7e0cc755-8e3f-401d-be56-1e2d9109123e/content/images/2026/10/4-body-7.jpg) Photo: Yulia Khlebnikova on Unsplash **Guising at the door.** In Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland reminds us, guising is the original form of trick-or-treating: you earned your reward with a verse, a song or a joke. So the door staff ask for one. A verse gets a welcome and a sweet; a song gets a cheer from the bar. **Three drinks, all apple.** A dram with a slice of baked apple; a cider served hot with a clove; and an alcohol-free twin, pressed apple juice with the same clove and the same glass, so the driver gets the night too. One story on the card for the three. ![An apple drink in a short glass with a slice of apple.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/7e/0c/7e0cc755-8e3f-401d-be56-1e2d9109123e/content/images/2026/10/5-body-7.jpg) Photo: Bonnie Kittle on Unsplash **The brief at five.** Every custom above in one sentence each, so the newest starter can tell a table where the ring comes from. If the team can't say it in a sentence, it hasn't been briefed; it's been decorated. ## Why it works The old customs did the marketing for centuries before anyone printed a flyer. They give the room something to do with its hands, something to tell its friends, and a reason to buy the next round that isn't a discount. Costs: a bag of apples, a brack, a ball of string and ten minutes at the briefing. The rota for a night like this follows [the rule I wrote about last week](https://www.ciaran-murray.com/the-rota-rule-ill-never-break/): one more name than the budget likes, because the whole room will be at the bar at nine. What's the oldest custom you've ever put on a bar, and did it work? Tell me in the comments on LinkedIn, or hit reply if this came to you by email. New here? My Monday stories and Thursday craft notes can come straight to your inbox: [subscribe free](https://www.ciaran-murray.com/#/portal/signup). Monday: the band room off Shandon Street, and what a brass band taught me about keeping time at the pass. ### References - National Folklore Collection (1937–39) *The Schools' Collection*, vol. 0349, p. 224, 'Snap-Apple Night', Colthurst National School, Blarney, Co. Cork, collected by Patrick Coleman from D. Coleman. Dublin: University College Dublin, via dúchas.ie. Available at: [duchas.ie](https://duchas.ie/en/cbes/4921724/4893907/5183609?ref=ciaran-murray.com) (Accessed: 20 October 2026). CC BY-NC 4.0. - National Folklore Collection (1937–39) *The Schools' Collection*, vol. 0355, p. 494, 'Halloween', Doire Gealbhan (B.) National School, Kanturk, Co. Cork, Dermot Riordan. Available at: [duchas.ie](https://duchas.ie/en/cbes/4921754/4903689/5170810?ref=ciaran-murray.com) (Accessed: 20 October 2026). - National Folklore Collection (1937–39) *The Schools' Collection*, vol. 0354, p. 230, 'Games I Play', An Clochar National School, Kanturk, Co. Cork. Available at: [duchas.ie](https://duchas.ie/en/cbes/4921747/4903096/5185195?ref=ciaran-murray.com) (Accessed: 20 October 2026). - Metropolitan Museum of Art (n.d.) *Snap Apple Night, or All-Hallow Eve*, engraving by James Scott after Daniel Maclise, 1845, acc. 49.40.212\. Available at: [metmuseum.org](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/644100?ref=ciaran-murray.com) (Accessed: 20 October 2026). - University of Galway (n.d.) 'Daniel Maclise', *Ireland Illustrated 1680–1860*. Available at: [ttce.universityofgalway.ie](https://ttce.universityofgalway.ie/irelandillustrated/view/person/ii%5Fperson%5F1345567325?ref=ciaran-murray.com) (Accessed: 20 October 2026). - National Museum of Ireland (n.d.) *Traditions and customs of Halloween / Samhain*, Irish Folklife Collections. Available at: [museum.ie](https://www.museum.ie/en-ie/collections-research/folklife-collections/folklife-collections-list-%281%29/religion-and-calendar-customs/hallowe-en-samhain?ref=ciaran-murray.com) (Accessed: 20 October 2026). - Rodger, L. (2023) 'Samhainn and the Scottish traditions of Hallowe'en', *Historic Environment Scotland blog*, 27 October. Available at: [blog.historicenvironment.scot](https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2023/10/samhainn-and-the-scottish-traditions-of-halloween/?ref=ciaran-murray.com) (Accessed: 20 October 2026). - Hutton, R. (1996) *The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain*. Oxford: Oxford University Press, ch. 35 'Samhain'; ch. 37 'The Modern Hallowe'en'.