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BANANAS have been banned in the small coastal village of Portsoy as residents gear up for their biggest day of the year, the annual Scottish Traditional Boat Festival.

Superstitious seafarers believe the fruit brings bad luck to any voyage and so festival organisers have declared the Aberdeenshire town a banana free-zone in order to ward off any maritime misfortune.

Banana ban signs have been posted, a banana amnesty has been introduced and local businesses have come out in support of the action, with Portsoy Ice Cream removing banana-flavoured items from its range until after the event.

Roger Goodyear, chairman of the festival, said: “Bananas may be a delicious fruit but they are considered bad luck on boats.

“We want to do everything possible to make sure our 2015 festival is a success and we don’t want to take any chances.

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"Our ban on bananas is a tongue-in-cheek nod to our seafaring heritage and is a reminder that the ocean can be a mystical, but dangerous, place and as such there are many traditional superstitions among fisher people.”

Many theories abound as to why sailors are so wary of the fruit.

One is that back in the early days of the Caribbean banana trade in the 1700s the fruit harboured dangerous spiders whose bite could be painful or even fatal.

Another theory is that in the early days of the banana trade, crews would overload the banana boats when leaving the tropics, resulting in the boats capsizing in bad weather.

Although a banana ban is now in place, there will be plenty of tempting local produce at the boat festival.