Apple Day is an annual celebration, held on October 21 each year, of apples and orchards. It is celebrated mainly in the United Kingdom.
Apple Day was initiated by Common Ground in 1990 and has been celebrated in each subsequent year by people organizing hundreds of local events. Common Ground describe the day as a way of celebrating and demonstrating that variety and richness matter to a locality and that it is possible to effect change in your place. Common Ground has used the apple as a symbol of the physical, cultural and genetic diversity we should not let slip away. In linking particular apples with their place of origin, they hope that orchards will be recognized and conserved for their contribution to local distinctiveness, including the rich diversity of wild life they support.
Apple Day events can be large or small, from apple games in a garden to large village fairs with cookery demonstrations, games, apple identification, juice and cider, gardening advice, and of course many hundreds of apple varieties.
More recently Apple Day has evolved into a weekend event, usually taking place on the Saturday and Sunday closest to Oct. 21st although a number of venues now simply use the term Apple Day for their own events which can take place anywhere in the second half of October.
The first Apple Day was on October 21, 1990 in Covent Garden, London.