I Just Bit Into An Apple With A Razor Blade

Halloween marks the end of summer and the beginning of the dark winter period and is celebrated as the end of the year according to some "Pagan" calendars.

This song is available on:


More related:

The belief that on this most magical and spiritually powerful night of the year it was made easy for the dead to cross back into the real world to communicate with relatives led to the practice of leaving food offerings on altars and doorsteps for the "wandering dead." Another practice was to set a place at the table for an unseen guest.

If those customs seem irrational, consider the Western tradition of leaving cookies and milk out for Santa Claus at Christmas or the Jewish custom of opening the door and pouring a glass of wine for Elijah The Prophet during Passover.

The Druids believed that during Samhain the dead would play tricks on mankind to cause panic and destruction. The food offerings of the "Feast Of The Dead" were an attempt to appease the spirits into complacency when they would come knocking.

The urban myth of inserting razor blades or needles into Halloween treats goes back as far as 1967, with tales of poison in the candy going back even further. Though the stories obviously play on paranoid fears, they are, in fact, based in reality.

While poisonings are usually connected with an intent to kill, sharp objects in candy bars rarely cause serious injury and are frequently discovered to be hoaxes often perpetrated by the "victim," usually a child.

However, there are still many demented persons out there. Whatever happened to don't take candy from a stranger?