Friday October 21 is Apple Day in England. Common Ground, the organisation that initiated the event in 1990, describe the day as a way of celebrating and demonstrating that both variety and richness matter to a locality. There 600 varieties of English apples.
Christians can join in and even adapt Apple Day for our own purposes. After all, we attached our Christmas festival to an existing pagan mid-winter celebration. The bible is replete with apple references, and it is the origin of the phrase “the apple of your eye” [Deut 32:10]. The Song of Solomon uses apples as erotic symbols, and in the prophecy of Joel the withering of the apple-tree is a symbol for the most profound loss.
And where does the phrase “Adam’s apple” come from? Genesis 2-3 recounts the myth of a forbidden fruit, given by Eve to Adam at the instigation of the serpent. Through a mis-translation from the Vulgate, the word “fruit” became the word “apple” and man has choked on one ever since. However, by the 15th century the long-term value of that apple had been recognized in the “upward fall” theory of human redemption:
Ne had the apple taken been,
The apple taken been,
Ne had never our ladie,
A‘been heav’ne queen.
Blessed be the time
That apple taken was,
Therefore we moun singen.
Deo gracias!
But this October we have a new reason to celebrate the Apple™ as we mourn the death of Steve Jobs in Silicon Valley, California. His genius in the design and marketing of everyday devices like the iPad and the iPhone brought enormous benefit for everyman. Deo gracias indeed!
