The tradition of wassailing (alt sp wasselling) falls into two distinct categories: The House-Visiting wassail and the Orchard-Visiting wassail. House-Visiting wassail, caroling by any other name, is the practice of people going door-to-door singing Christmas carols.
The Orchard-Visiting wassail refers to the ancient custom of visiting
orchards, reciting incantations and singing to the trees in apple orchards in cider-producing regions of England to promote a good harvest for the coming year.
Some scholars prefer a pre-Christian explanation of the old traditional ceremony of wassailing. How far the tradition dates back is unknown but it has undeniable connections with Anglo-Saxon pagan ritual. Of recent times the word Wassail (from the Anglo-Saxon toast Wæs þu hæl, "be thou hale" — i.e., "be in good health") has come to be synonymous with Christmas. The word wassail is old English (OE) and so may predate the Norman conquest in 1066. According to the Oxford English Dictionary "waes hael" is the Middle English spelling parallel to OE "wes hal". The American Heritage Dictionary, fourth edition, gives Old Norse "ves heill" as the source of Middle English "waeshaeil". The correct response to the toast is Drinc hæl.
Christmas was not celebrated anywhere before the third century, and only gradually moved northwards through Europe. It was probably the Normans who brought the celebration to England. Traditionally, the wassail is celebrated on Twelfth Night
(mostly regarded as January 6, but more properly the evening of January
5). However most people insist on wassailing on 'Old Twelvey Night'
(January 17) as that would have been the correct date before the
introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in 1752.
The practice has its roots in the middle ages as a reciprocal exchange between the feudal lords and their peasants as a form of recipient-initiated charitable giving, to be distinguished from begging. This point is made in the song "Here We Come A-Wassailing", when the wassailers inform the lord of the house that
- "we are not daily beggars that beg from door to door but we are friendly neighbours whom you have seen before."
The lord of the manor would give food and drink to the peasants in exchange for their blessing and goodwill, i.e...
- "Love and joy come to you,
- And to you your wassail too;
- And God bless you and send you
- a Happy New Year"
... which would be given in the form of the song being sung.
Wassailing is the background practice against which an English carol
such as "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" dating back to sixteenth century England, can be made sense of.
The carol lies in the English tradition where wealthy people of the
community gave Christmas treats to the carolers on Christmas Eve such as
'figgy puddings'.
Although wassailing is often described in innocuous and sometimes
nostalgic terms, the practice in England has not always been considered
so innocent. Wassailing was associated with rowdy bands of young men who
would enter the homes of wealthy neighbors and demand free food and
drink in a trick-or-treat fashion.
If the householder refused, he was usually cursed, and occasionally his
house was vandalized. The example of the exchange is seen in their
demand for "figgy pudding" and "good cheer", i.e., the wassail beverage, without which the wassailers in the song will not leave; "We won't go until we get some, so bring some out here."
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Above is a recipe for Wassail cooking over the stove, 7 pints of brown ale,
1 bottle of dry sherry, cinnamon stick, ground ginger,
ground nutmeg, lemon slices. |
In the cider-producing West of England
(primarily the counties of Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire and
Herefordshire) wassailing also refers to drinking (and singing) the
health of trees in the hopes that they might better thrive.
An old rhyme goes: “Wassaile the trees, that they may beare / You
many a Plum and many a Peare: / For more or lesse fruits they will
bring, / As you do give them Wassailing.”
The purpose of wassailing is to awake the cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits
to ensure a good harvest of fruit in the Autumn.{"England In
Particular", Common Ground 2007} The ceremonies of each wassail vary
from village to village but they generally all have the same core
elements. A wassail King and Queen lead the song and/or a processional
tune to be played/sung from one orchard to the next, the wassail Queen
will then be lifted up into the boughs of the tree where she will place
toast soaked in Wassail from the Clayen Cup
as a gift to the tree spirits (and to show the fruits created the
previous year). Then an incantation is usually recited such as
“Here's to thee, old apple tree, That blooms well, bears well. Hats
full, caps full, Three bushel bags full, An' all under one tree. Hurrah!
Hurrah!”
Then the assembled crowd will sing and shout and bang drums and pots
& pans and generally make a terrible racket until the gunsmen give a
great final volley through the branches to make sure the work is done
and then off to the next orchard. Perhaps unbeknown to the general
public, this ancient English tradition is still very much thriving
today. The West Country
is the most famous and largest cider producing region of the country
and some of the most important wassails are held annually in Carhampton (Somerset) and Whimple (Devon), both on 17 January (old Twelfth Night).
Clevedon (North Somerset) holds an annual Wassailing event in the popularly attended Clevedon Community Orchard,
combining the traditional elements of the festival with the
entertainment and music of the Bristol Morris Men and their cantankerous
Horse.
Private readings about people in Somerset in the 1800s revealed that inhabitants of Somerset practiced the old Wassailing Ceremony, singing the following lyrics after drinking the cider until they were "merry and gay:"
"Apple tree, apple tree, we all come to wassail thee, Bear this year
and next year to bloom and to blow, Hat fulls, cap fulls, three cornered
sack fills, Hip, Hip, Hip, hurrah, Holler biys, holler hurrah."
A folktale from Somerset reflecting this custom tells of the "Apple
Tree Man", the spirit of the oldest apple tree in an orchard, and in
whom the fertility of the orchard is said to reside. In the tale a man
offers his last mug of mulled cider to the trees in his orchard and is
rewarded by the Apple Tree Man who reveals to him the location of buried
treasure.
"Print this recipe for Fireside Wassail. A wonderful holiday spiced drink brought to you by BoydTV and FireplaceVideosHD.com. This
is a non-alcoholic variation of a traditional yule time classic. A
perfect hot juice drink for those cold winter nights or family
gatherings. Sometimes spelled Wassel."
FIRESIDE WASSAIL (a.k.a. Hot Weasel)
2 Quarts Apple Cider
2 Cups Pineapple Juice
2 Cups Orange Juice
¾ Cup Lemon Juice
½ Cup Sugar
2 Cinnamon Sticks
12 Whole Cloves
Cheesecloth
Optional Garnishes:
- Cinnamon sticks
- Lemon slices
- Whole cloves
"Tie 12 cloves and 2 cinnamon sticks in a cheesecloth bag. Combine spice bag, apple cider, juices, and sugar in a Dutch oven, stirring well; cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Discard the spice bag. Pour
wassail into serving mugs and serve hot. If desired, garnish each
serving with a cinnamon stick and a lemon slice studded with whole
cloves. YIELD: About 3 Quarts"
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