Wow! THanks for all the great suggestions.

Rumncoke suggest wassailling - we do that on twelfth night - 5th January. Custom says that you should fire shotguns and bang pots and pans - Shotguns in the hands of drunken revellers has been frowned on (not least by my eldest son who is a police firearms officer)so we just do the pans and dustbin lids etc., pour cider on the roots of the 'queen' tree (a large Bramley)and hang toast dipped in cider in the branches.

Apple Day is a way of promoting the many different and old varieties of apples that are fast disappearing. What the posts here suggest is a real fondness and nostalgia for apple trees, both in the UK and across the pond. I planted my own small orchard of about 10 trees myself and have loved watching them grow over the years. It's my favourite place to go and sit in any season - the 'genius loci' really seems to live there. Strangely, someone told me recently that there was an orchard there many years ago but it had been grubbed up.