Apple (symbolism) - Legends, Folklore, and Traditions

Legends, Folklore, and Traditions

• In North America an American Indian (Native American) is called an "apple" (a slur that stands for someone who is "red on the outside, white on the inside.") primarily by other American Indians to indicate someone who has lost touch with their cultural identity. First used in the 1980s.
• Apples feature frequently in fairy tales. A well-known example is "Snow White", in which a poisonous apple puts Snow White to sleep. In Le piacevoli notti (The Facetious Nights) of Giovanni Francesco Straparola, apples appear in four stories.
• Savior of the Apple Feast Day is celebrated on August 19 in Russia and Ukraine.
• A boatbuilder's superstition holds that it is unlucky to build a boat out of wood from an apple tree because this wood was previously used to manufacture coffins.
• Since 1990, Apple Day has been held across the UK and beyond, on October 21. This is a festival created by charity Common Ground to support localism: folksongs, biodiversity, buried orchards, children's games.
• Swiss folklore holds that William Tell shot an apple from his son's head with his crossbow.
• Irish folklore claims that if an apple is peeled into one continuous ribbon and thrown behind a woman's shoulder, it will land in the shape of the future husband's initials.
• Danish folklore says that apples wither around adulterers.
• A popular folk art involves a process to turn apples into wrinkly representations of human heads, usually be placed on dolls. In 1975, Vincent Price promoted a horror-themed kit that used a similar process to create faux shrunken heads, Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture, by Whiting Crafts.
• According to popular legend, upon witnessing an apple fall from its tree, Isaac Newton was inspired to conclude that a similar 'universal gravitation' attracted the moon toward the Earth. (This legend is discussed in more detail in the article on Isaac Newton).
• In Arthurian legend, the mythical isle of Avalon's name is believed to mean 'isle of apples'.
• In some places, apple bobbing is a traditional Halloween activity.
• In the 19th and early 20th century, and 21st century United States, Denmark and Sweden, a fresh, polished apple was a traditional children's gift for a teacher.
• The Apple Wassail is a traditional form of wassailing practiced in cider orchards of South West England during the winter. The ceremony is said to 'bless' the apple trees to produce a good crop in the forthcoming season.
• New York City is often called "The Big Apple." The term "The Big Apple" was coined by touring jazz musicians and horse racers of the 1920s who used the slang expression "apple" for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple.
• "Comparing apples and oranges" means to examine the similarities of things that are completely different; in German the corresponding expression is "comparing apples with pears".
• "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" is a popular saying, the apple obviously symbolizing health, but also the advantages of eating fresh fruit.
• "Apples and Pears", Cockney rhyming slang for stairs
• Johnny Appleseed is said to have wandered the early United States planting apple trees.
• The apple is symbolic for the Trinity Mathematical Society.
• The design concept for the Design and Arts Arcadia of Myungseung, located in Chuncheon, Korea, is based on an apple with the top-third and the bottom-third sliced off while having the skin peeled around the circumference.'
• In Kazakhstan, the ex-capital city's name "Almaty" derives from the Kazakh word for 'apple' (алма), and thus is often translated as "full of apples;" alma is also 'apple' in other Turkic languages, as well as in Hungarian.