According to my resources August 13th is the day the Romans celebrate their harvest festival of Pomona which celebrated the fruit harvest. The festival is named after the goddess Pomona who was a deity who governed fruit orchards and largely apples. She may have had her origins as a wood nymph. The virginal Pomona was only interested in ruling over her orchards and not interested in marring. The Roman go Vertumnus was so passionately in love with Pomona that he pursued her non-stop. Vertumnus’s claim to fame was he ruled over the seasons and governed over change. This helped make him a likely spouse to become Pomona’s husband. Eventually Pomona fell in love with Vertumnus and became his wife. They had several children and apples became Pomona’s sacred symbol. It should be noted that some sources have the festival of Pomona has happening on November 1st. At any rate the apple became an important symbol of the fall harvest with bobbing for apples being one of the rituals derived from the earlier holiday. And so, it goes.