Items like alcohol and sharp objects are commonly banned form community events, but an upcoming occasion in Portsoy has restricted a certain fruit.
Bananas have been prohibited at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Traditional Boat Festival as superstitious seafarers regard the fruit as bad luck on board ships.
Banana ban signs have been posted and a banana amnesty has been introduced while local businesses have come out in support of the action.
Portsoy Ice Cream has even removed banana flavoured ices from its range until after the event.
Roger Goodyear, chairman of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Traditional Boat Festival, said: “We want to do everything possible to make sure our 2015 festival is a success and we don’t want to take any chances.”
“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.”
There are several theories on why people believe bananas are bad luck for a boat.
One is that back in the early days of the banana trade, crews would overload the banana boats when leaving the tropics, resulting a capsize.
Another is that wooden sailing boats involved in the Caribbean trade of the 1700s had to move so quickly to deliver bananas before they spoiled that the crew had a hard job catching fish.
The event, which will welcome many other kinds of food, will run from Friday, 3 to Saturday, July 4.