So I'm deeply interested in the history of the three great American holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I own several history books on each holiday, but since these festivals are so old, the accuracy of the history books can by questionable at times.
One of the biggest disagreements I've notice is in regards to the Festival of Pomana, and whether or not it even existed.
Most Historians agree that Halloween can by traced back to the Gaelic Festival of Samhain. Obviously, there is a lot of misinformation about Samhain, due to the lack of written records. The most common misconception is that Samhain is the name of the Celtic god of the dead, which experts now agree is not true. Samhain just means "Summers end".
Another piece of history that might not be true is the Festival of Pomona. Almost all my Halloween history books mentions that while Samhain was being celebrated in Ireland and such, Rome had it's own Autumn Festival, dedicated to the goddess Pomona, with Apples as it's theme. And at some point in history, these two ancient Festival mixed with each other, possibly through Roman invasion. [Although, I don't think the Romans ever invaded Ireland]
Well, in my most recent Halloween book, "Trick or Treat" from 2012, the author Lisa Morton dispute the claim of Pomona, saying that the November Festival of Pomona didn't exist, or at least there is no evidence of it. She says in her book that "November was the dullest month in the Roman calendar".
While her claim that the Festival of Pomona wasn't a real festival celebrated in ancient times is an interesting twist to the Halloween mythos, I haven't found anyone to back up her claim that it wasn't real, or anyone with evidence that it was a real holiday.
Scullard (Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic) only mentions Pomona as one of many very early, obscure Roman goddesses. The word means "fruits" in Latin, by the way. He mentions nothing about November. Dumezil (Archaic Roman Religion) has only a small, obscure footnote about it. Nothing in Fowler. She is sometimes called the consort of Volturnus, but that is in August, and there is zero evidence that she played any role. She was a very very ancient cult (she had a flamen) but there is zero evidence.
I have been researching this exact question about the festival of Pomona. I bought the book Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne and it makes similar claims about the festival. I can't believe there are historians who would just make stuff up [sarcasm]. Perhaps Pomona was not as popular a goddess in Rome as these books claims, but I would love to know where this connection to Pomona and Samhain comes from. Did people from the British Isles somehow incorporate her into their own mythology? My book by Bannatyne claims that Samhain "was sometimes called Lamasabhal ("Lamswool"), after a strong concoction of apples, sugar and ale that was drunk on the eve of November 1." She also writes that many old divination games from England, Ireland, and Scottland used "apples and nuts to predict one's future spouse." Still pretty weak evidence for a connection but I would love to know more.