Apple Gifting Day | 1 January 2025

Apple Gifting Day is celebrated every year on January 1, as part of the many traditional ways of marking New Year’s Day. Because apples symbolize good health, giving people apples on New Year’s Day is wishing them good health for the rest of the year. The best thing about apples is their varieties: candied apples, apples for tarts and sweet dishes, and apples for raw eating. So this Apple Gifting Day, give an apple to your loved ones.

History of Apple Gifting Day

The history of giving apples as gifts goes way back before Christ. In ancient Greek and Roman empires, giving fruits on the occasion of the arrival of the new year was a tradition. Even in Celtic cultures, gifting mistletoe, gilded nuts, and branches of sacred trees was a great tradition that, under the influence of Greek and Roman empires, spread throughout Europe.

Until the 17th century, the generic term for fruits other than berries was ‘apple.’ Giving apples as a gift was considered to be a sign of wealth and perhaps that is the reason apples serve as a symbol for many things such as love, knowledge, bounty, beauty, and good health. Small gifts were usually given to family and friends on New Year’s Day, but assorted fruit gifts, especially apples, were considered valuable on such occasions.

As advancements in science were made and Europeans started spreading out to distant lands, the traditions of giving gifts on New Year’s Day followed them. The same thing happened in the U.S. The tradition of giving fruits to people became a custom, and the European settlers retained this tradition, which had become a part of American culture.

During the early years of American History, teachers were often given apples as payments. This custom of giving apples continued even after teachers started receiving cash remunerations, but then apple gifts were reduced to a mere token of gratitude from students.

Closer to home, the first apples were picked in the Company’s Garden, at the Cape of Good Hope on 17 April 1662. These were Witte Wijn Appels, a variety used mainly to make wine or cider. Over the years this apple variety was lost, but two apple sleuths from Tru-Cape found the plant material in the Netherlands. Funded by Hortgro and Tru-Cape plant material was grafted, imported and quarantined. After many obstacles, the Witte Wijn Appel was replanted at the Cape of Good Hope in 2019 and another tree at Babylonstoren in 2020.

Today the tradition of gifting apples has become quaint and merely historic. But it’s still ideal, nonetheless.

SOURCE: https://nationaltoday.com/apple-gifting-day/

READ MORE about the Witte Wijn Appel: https://www.hortgro.co.za/news/the-first-witte-wijn-apples-are-growing-on-south-african-soil-again/

and here: https://www.hortgro.co.za/news/oldest-apple-tree-now-at-babylonstoren/