If you happened to walk up Donkey Lane on a very cold Saturday afternoon in January 2020, you might have heard a group of people singing and 'making merry' in the Orchard. What was that all about? Well, Greening Chinnor were holding their first Wassail just before Covid and lockdown struck. We couldn't hold one this year, but on Saturday January 29th 2022, we will once again be Wassailing the apple trees.
Advertising for the event described it as "a very old tradition practiced in the apple orchards of southern England during the winter to bless the fruit trees to encourage them to produce a good harvest for the year. The tradition is to make a lot of noise to ward off bad luck and mischievous spirits, so they stay away and don't steal the fruit!"
The word Wassail comes from the Old English 'Waes Hael' meaning Be Healthy or Be Whole; and it is a toast of 'Good health' for both the people, their crops and their animals. Because once upon a time it wasn't just apple trees that were Wassailed, other fruit trees, cows and even bees all had their own Wassailing. The ceremony involving cider apple trees seems to have survived longest, so it is counties such as Somerset, Devon and Herefordshire which were most closely associated with Wassailing in the last century and into living memory.
Dating back at least to the Middle Ages, Wassailing is a custom which almost died out but has lately been revived and re-imagined for the 21st century. For example the National Trust has held public events at several of its properties in recent years, and locally the Mid Shires Orchard Group has been holding Wassails in orchards in Buckinghamshire since about 2008. It is now often celebrated in a more family-friendly way during daylight hours. In the Cotswolds the Morris Men take part in dancing round the trees, and here in Chinnor we were lucky enough to have the Village Voices community choir come to sing us Wassail songs as well as the Vicar who blessed the Orchard.
Other aspects of the traditional ceremony included drinking from a communal Wassail bowl, with a sort of punch which could be cider or beer-based, usually warm and spiced and sometimes with added eggs and cream. These Wassails were held at night, with bonfires being lit in the orchards and people carrying flaming torches. Such old customs could vary between different villages, even between different farms, but they all encompassed singing, drinking and praising the trees with encouragement to do even better next year. Each place had its own song too, a form of folk song or carol, and luckily many of them were collected and written down before they were forgotten. The closest to us that I can find is the Adderbury (Oxon) Wassail, collected in 1917.
But as an ancient way of trying to ensure good harvests, Wassailing can perhaps be seen as a continuation of an earlier fertility festival - to awaken the trees after their winter sleep. Combined with the idea of warding off any evil spirits who may lurk in the branches, latterly by firing shotguns up into the trees as well as beating pots and pans loudly below them. The trees were thanked for the last harvest, given cider to drink and fed with cider-soaked toast, but they might also be beaten with sticks and warned of what would happen if they didn't bear good fruit in the coming year.
If the ceremony is held to encourage a good harvest, I wondered why it should take place in deepest winter long before the blossom appears? And why should there be mischievous spirits around wanting to steal the fruit which isn't going to appear for at least another eight months or so? If you want to know more, including why the event traditionally happened on a certain day in January, and why the fire and loud noise are necessary, and indeed what is the connection between Wassail and Christmas, then read on...
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| Donkey Lane Community Orchard Wassail January 2020 |
Wassail - History and Tradition
Writing the short article above for the Parish Pump has prompted many questions. As I researched the history of the word 'Wassail' I discovered that it is not a single idea and nor is it associated with just one era or one set of beliefs. In the following account I have tried to track it back over the years until discovering the first time it was given its name. It can certainly be traced back from living memory through traditions connected with Victorian Christmas celebrations and then earlier still into Tudor and Shakespearean times when the full 'Twelve days of Christmas' were celebrated. Wassailing was then very much a Twelfth Night ceremony. But earlier yet the word itself was first used in Anglo-Saxon times, perhaps as far back as the 6th century.
Before that there are hints that similar ceremonies may have taken place in the days of the ancient Britons before the Romans came. Certainly, many writers believe that the roots of what later became known as apple Wassailing, existed in the earlier rites of tree worship, along with the idea of good and evil spirits. There were known to be fire festivals taking place in deep mid-winter around the time of the December solstice, and along with fertility festivals in early Spring these too could have had an influence on later practices.
To explain what Wassail is I have divided the activities into three distinct types, all known as Wassail or Wassailing. But of course, there are no clear cut divisions because they are so connected. However, I hope this makes it easier to understand how things have developed over the centuries. At the end I will go back even further to the time before the word Wassail appeared in print, searching for possible origins of the practice of orchard Wassailing. Finally, I will describe some of the 'orchard revivals' of recent years, which are based on various elements from each of the different types of Wassail.
WASSAIL Firstly the Old English 'Was Hael' (meaning 'Good Health') was the toast which gave us the word.
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| “Official Bayeux Tapestry digital representation · Eleventh century · Credentials: City of Bayeux, DRAC Normandie, University of Caen Normandie, CNRS, ENSICAEN, Pictures: 2017 - la Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie” |
This toasting was associated with the mid-winter feasting and drinking celebrations which took place in the great Anglo-Saxon halls (much later to be taken up by the landed gentry in their own stately homes). The Lord of the Manor would provide a large bowl of spiced punch, a mixture of ale and mead along with roasted crab apples. Tongues would be loosened and tales of the old days would be told by the fires. In fact the epic poem Beowulf, set in Scandinavia in the 6th century and passed down orally by story-tellers but not written down till much later, is one of the first places where the word Wassail appears in print.
These people were invaders from northern Europe (roughly present-day Denmark to Germany) and their language a mix of Old Norse and Old High German. The Germanic Yule festival falls around December 22, marking the winter solstice and the longest night of the year. No doubt they brought their traditions with them. The Anglo-Saxons had a fear of evil spirits and believed in magic, some of their older beliefs still lingered even after conversion to Christianity just as I cross my fingers for luck and don't walk under ladders. Both pagan images and Christian ones appear together on some of their artefacts, they were clearly hedging their bets.
And although Yule evolved into Christmas once the Roman Catholic church had decided on December 25 as the day of Christ's birth, the old Norse god Yule continues to have an influence on how we celebrate Christmas today. 'Cristesmæsse' itself is an Anglo Saxon word first recorded in 1038, not long before we were conquered by the Normans. Incidentally the Normans are said to have brought us cider. Before they engaged in the Battle of Hastings the Saxons warriors had a final drinking session in the English camp with a toasting cry of ‘Rejoice and Wassail' - you can see them pictured sitting in their Hall, embroidered on the Bayeaux Tapestry:
Rejoice and wassail
Pass the bottle and drink healthy
Drink backwards and drink to me
Drink half and drink empty
Pass the bottle and drink healthy
Drink backwards and drink to me
Drink half and drink empty
These winter feasting and drinking celebrations continued down through the years into the Royal households (Wassailing was recorded in the accounts of both Edward II and Henry VII), into the monasteries and colleges (Jesus College, Oxford has an old Wassail bowl holding 10 gallons) and eventually into domestic households.
There are many references to the Wassail bowls, they were made of different types of wood to judge from the different trees mentioned in the songs. Richer families had silver bowls specially made, or at least a very finely decorated and lidded wooden one. There were even elaborate pottery bowls with lids. Many beautiful turned wooden Wassail bowls and cups are still to be seen in National Trust properties. They date from the 17th century as they were made just after the Reformation, when Christmas and its associated festivities made a welcome return after being banned for a few years by Oliver Cromwell.
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| Wassail cup and cover in cherry wood made by Stuart King, 2012 |
There were also many different recipes for the drink inside the bowls, no doubt families developed their own secret recipes based on beer, mead or cider - or perhaps all three! It was sometimes known as 'Lambswool', and often included cooked crab apples as well as several spices and sometimes toast to float on top.
Shakespeare mentioned Wassail (as wassel) in at least two of his plays and the Oxford Book of Carols suggests that he may have heard this fragment sung outside his house at Christmas:
These are the same words that appear in the 'Wassailers' Carol', perhaps the best known Wassailing song, written down in 1868. It is the one used in the second type of Wassailing below:
Shakespeare mentioned Wassail (as wassel) in at least two of his plays and the Oxford Book of Carols suggests that he may have heard this fragment sung outside his house at Christmas:
Good master and mistress
While you're sitting by the fire,
Pray think of us poor children,
Who are wandering in the mire.
These are the same words that appear in the 'Wassailers' Carol', perhaps the best known Wassailing song, written down in 1868. It is the one used in the second type of Wassailing below:
Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green,
Here we come a-wandering,
So fair to be seen.
Chorus
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail too,
And God bless you and send you
A happy new year
Our wassail cup is made
Of the rosemary tree,
And so is your beer
Of the best barley
Chorus Love and joy...
We are not daily beggars
That beg from door to door,
But we are neighbours' children
Whom you have seen before.
Chorus Love and joy...
Good Master and Good Mistress
As you sit by the fire,
Pray think of us poor children
Who are wandering in the mire
Chorus Love and joy...
This version is from Gilbert James' Christmas carols published 1906; apparently there are 27 different collected versions of this one. A version published in Cicely Mary Baker's illustrated book includes this verse:
The roads are very dirty,
Our shoes are very thin;
We've got a little pocket
To put a penny in
Although so far we can find no evidence of historic Wassailing having taken place in the apple or cherry orchards of Chinnor and Chinnor Hill, the verses of this carol recall the May Day celebrations in Chinnor which are pictured on the front of ‘Chinnor in Camera'. Again, those going door to door around the village were neighbours' children, poor and known to the wealthier householders who they visited while sweetly pleading for money or other offerings.
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| From the Illustrated London News, 24 December 1842, titled 'Old Christmas' and accompanied by a verse 'The Song of the Wassail Bowl' |
WASSAILING This second type of Wassailing became very popular in Victorian times although there is no doubt it began much earlier. House visiting customs with a Wassail bowl are believed to date from the 1600s. Groups of the poorer, working villagers left their own homes and travelled round from door to door, singing songs and carols to the better-off householders and receiving in return both money and drink to fill their Wassail bowls. Their bowls would probably have been simple turned wooden bowls, not like the grand bowls of the wealthier homes. This was a legitimate way to ask for charity and it probably meant they could afford a better Christmas meal for their families. A similar thing still happens today but now it is called 'carolling'. In recent years local singers did their rounds at Chinnor Hill, and of course the village get-together on Christmas Eve around the big Christmas tree is a regular event. Nowadays we collect money for charity rather than ourselves, and mulled wine may be offered to the carollers.
Many carols began as a kind of folk song. One of the songs sung by the original Wassailers is known as the 'Gloucester Wassail' and it dates back to the 1700s:
Wassail, wassail all over the town
Our toast it is white and our ale it is brown
Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree
With the wassailing bowl, we’ll drink to thee
There is a good version on YouTube which you can easily find by searching for 'Blur' and 'Wassailing Song'; they recorded it in 1992.
I last heard it sung here in Chinnor when the Towersey Morris performed their Mummers Play in the Red Lion in December 2017.
This is the place to mention that Morris Men and Mummers often get involved in Wassail events, indeed they are all considered to be part of 'Olde England'. They are nearly always to be found in those Wassails which still take place at night. In the past they also travelled from house to house like the early Wassailers, as well as being hired and paid to perform in the larger houses at Christmas time.
APPLE WASSAILING The third type of activity is the Wassailing of fruit trees and other crops. Apple Wassailing was first recorded in St Albans in 1486, and at Fordwich in Kent in 1585 when groups of young men went round the orchards performing the ceremony in return for money.
This custom continued and had become commonplace by the 17th and 18th centuries. Fortunately, exactly what was taking place by the 19th century was written down in a book called 'British Calendar Customs'. In the chapter on Twelfth Night, it describes the apple wassailing ceremonies that took place in Devon and Cornwall, and Herefordshire and Worcestershire, in some detail. Other counties mentioned as observing the custom were Gloucestershire, Kent, Monmouthshire, Somerset, Surrey, Sussex and Wiltshire. Other sources mention Norfolk and Hampshire. The season for Wassailing could last from around Christmas to the 18th January, but it was most commonly practised on Twelfth Night. These rural traditions were not isolated events, there were many other kind of Twelfth Night revelries happening all over the country, both in town households but also the lighting of Twelfth Night bonfires in the countryside.
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| Wassailing apple trees with hot cider in Devonshire on Twelfth Eve, from The Illustrated London News, Jan. 12, 1861 |
Now expanded to include the Wassailing of both crops and animals, this outdoor tradition was and still is carried out by villagers in the fields and orchards of the countryside. In the case of fruit trees, it is done in order to "to charm the trees to yield an abundant crop of fruit" as 'Calendar Customs' so nicely puts it. Here is a poem written by the poet Robert Herrick around 1630 (a vicar then living in Devon; he also wrote 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may'):
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 doe give them Wassailing.
In Sussex this type of Wassailing was known as howling. A rector recorded giving the 'howling boys' 4 pence in 1665.
Stand fast root
Bear well top
Pray God send us a howling good crop.
Every twig, apples big
Every bough, apples now.
What happened during an apple wassail? Firstly the 'bowls' would have been simple affairs or even milk churns or cider jugs. Mid-nineteenth century accounts describe the farmer and his men going into the orchard for rounds of drinking cider, only later does some get poured onto the tree roots. They sing to the tree and may place toast or cake in the branches, or sometimes a small boy was put up into the branches and addressed as if he were a tom tit. In other places toast was left for the robin, both these birds seem to have some significance in folklore. Any old pistols or guns would be fired with gunpowder charges only, not shot, or if they were not available then pots and pans would be rattled to make as much noise or 'hullabaloo' as possible. Sometimes there was a toast to the tree or an address to ask if the tree would bear well the next year, if not it would be cut down. Special songs were sung or might be chanted three times. Similar verses are recorded from Devon and Cornwall, here is a typical example:
Here's to thee old apple tree
Whence thou may'st bud and whence thou may’st blow
And whence thou may'st have apples enow.
Hats full, caps full,
Bushel-bushel-sacks full
And my pockets full too. Huzza!
It seems that before the Church decree which set the twelve-day Christmas period, there were already certain rites or ceremonies happening around this time. It was believed to be one of the worst times of the year for evil forces to be at work, second only to Halloween. So to accept it into the Christian calendar it was renamed Epiphany, the day when Christ was shown to the wise men and confirmed as the son of God. Before the calendar change of 1752, the day fell on 17th January and some people and regions in the south-west still celebrate their apple Wassails on 'Old Twelfth Night'. It sometimes takes place on Christmas Eve too, or 'Old Christmas Eve' which is 5 January.
This is the type of Wassailing just about remembered in living memory, as it was still happening in the 1950s. There are pre-War black and white photographs of groups of men, women and boys in jackets and mackintoshes standing in a Minehead orchard holding shotguns, enamel mugs, and accordions. In most places the practice had died out until the late 20th/early 21st century revivals, but it is thought that there is at least one example of the ceremony surviving unbroken into the present day. That is at Carhampton in Somerset where they celebrate on 17th January.
Most of the present-day Wassailing ceremonies use cider or apple juice rather than beer.
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| 1828 Wood-engraving Landscape with apple-trees and a couple dancing in the foreground, and a cider- press beyond with further dancing figures in the background. © The Trustees of the British Museum |
Here is a surprising woodcut dating from 1828 which includes a cider press - surprising because the participants are dressed in a very different style to those mentioned above in Minehead. It shows lightly-clad figures, with a group dancing around in the full moon. It hints that perhaps apple Wassailing did not develop out of the house-visiting or travelling Wassailers as some believe. Perhaps it does hark back to pagan ceremonies that took place before the Anglo-Saxons brought us their 'Was Hael'.
If 'Wassail' is an Anglo-Saxon word, does this mean there were no such ceremonies happening before the Angles, Saxons and Jutes came here? If orchard wassailing developed out of the house visiting tradition, as some say, then why were the loud noises and firearms added? There is no element of trying to frighten off something or someone in either the Anglo-Saxon feasting or the later door-to-door visits described above as the first two types of Wassail. This is why I think that apple Wassailing must have a different, earlier origin. It is possible that it is connected with the Germanic or Nordic myths and legends which would have been brought to Britain. Indeed, the apple itself has a rich folklore (to be explored in a later article).
It is hard to get to the bottom of these supposed evil spirits who have to be chased away from the orchard. The nearest I can find is in the belief that our pagan ancestors worshipped various elements found in nature, such as rivers and trees (Animism). Sacred trees and sacred groves were particularly important in pre-Christian Germanic culture, and for the Druids. There were tree deities or spirits, some of these were benevolent but others not so. There are plenty of sacred river and tree deities in the various Eastern religions too.
Moreover, trees are powerful symbols of fertility because of the way they lose their leaves and appear to be dead, before re-growth of leaves and flowers in the spring. An exception is the evergreen tree, which appears always alive. Long before the Christmas tree became the must-have decoration, people brought evergreens into their homes at mid-winter. Sometimes they were decorated with apples, the pre-cursor of the glass bauble. One legend says that these branches housed spirits who would be well-behaved for a short time, but woe betide you if you did not remove them by Twelfth Night. After this they would remain in the house all year and reveal themselves as mischievous beings causing all sorts of disruption. Perhaps these are the sort we have to chase from the orchard?
Before Anglo-Saxon times we had Roman rule for a short time, and their mid-winter festival was Saturnalia, a time of excess eating, drinking and gift-giving held around 17-23 December. One of the Roman deities was Pomona, a goddess who pruned, grafted and generally looked after the fruit trees and orchards. Sadly, so far, I can find no evidence that there was a Roman mid-winter ceremony involving apples, but this is not to say it didn't happen as eating apples had been brought to Britain by the Romans and must have been very welcome. Until then we had the small native crab apple only, which had been around since Neolithic times.
Before the Romans there is no self-written record about the many British tribes they conquered. But there is information which has come down to us somehow, including stories of the Druids from later Christian clerics who wrote the tales handed down by oral tradition. In the 6th century, St Augustine described Glastonbury, the place in Somerset then known as Avalon or the 'isle of apples', as a royal island dedicated to the most sacred of deities. According to one source the Druids made a special brew from apples to celebrate their 'Day of the Apple', and this brew is effectively what has come down to us as the Wassail Bowl - roasted or baked crab apples in either ale or cider, with honey and spices. The 'roasted crabs that hiss in the bowl' noted by Shakespeare. Certainly, the sacred plant of the Druids, mistletoe (highly associated with Christmas) is often found growing on old apple trees.
The Celts marked several special days throughout the year, including Imbolc (a cross-quarter day rather than a solstice) which falls around the end of January and was one of their fire festivals. It marked the end of winter and the start of spring. It is easy to imagine that the Anglo Saxons took over some elements of existing Celtic customs when they held their first mid-winter festivals with their 'Waes Hael' toast. Could the Celtic fire festivals of the Britons have influenced the earliest form of what became apple Wassail? Imbolc itself was later to be transmuted into the Christian calendar as Candlemas on February 2, when candles are still lit in churches.
In fact, the winter solstice must have been one of the major seasonal festivals in every early culture. We know the sun will always return after appearing to 'stand still' for around four days after 21st December. But this may not always have seemed a certainty. In the depths of harsh weather and dark days, people who depended on next year's crops for survival would have seen the return of the sun as a matter of life or death. Recent excavations at Stonehenge concluded that the main event held there was not the summer solstice, celebrated in recent times by modern-day Druids and New-Age travellers, but in fact the mid-winter solstice. It seems that the people from tribes all over the UK gathered to watch that sunset as the sun dropped between the stones. They probably stayed awake all night, feasting and drinking. It happens to coincide with a time of year when there was plenty of meat available as most animals had to be slaughtered, apart from the necessary breeding stock.
Such ceremonies were not confined to Europe; there is good evidence that Native American tribes held pre-Christian mid-winter festivals in places such as Arizona and New Mexico. These all centred on marking the sunset on the shortest day of the year. Perhaps there has always been a strong human urge to get together as a community at the darkest time of the year, a need to stop work and have a break from routine, to eat and perhaps drink too much? These gatherings ensured that light would indeed return to the land and life could go on, fertility was restored and everything could begin again with the start of the agricultural new year.
Could Wassailing really be an old echo of the pagan tree-worship thought to have existed before written records began? I was recently surprised to learn that the Spanish Conquistadores built their cathedrals on top of destroyed Aztec temples. By coincidence around the same time, local television news was reporting that Roman statues had been excavated from underneath the disused medieval Church of St Mary's at nearby Stoke Mandeville. Evidently this Church was built on top of a fallen Roman temple which itself had been erected on the site of a Bronze Age burial mound. As I was already researching for this 'Wassail' article, the parallels jumped out at me. The site of ceremony and worship stays the same although the religion of the people changes. Might not some of the rituals also stay the same throughout the centuries?
It is recorded that in AD 601 when the Church was busy converting England to Christianity, Pope Gregory told his missionaries that pagan 'temples' should not be destroyed but adopted as Christian places of worship. They were also to keep the evergreen yew trees, sacred to the pagans, in the new Churchyards. The Church was never slow to adapt old traditions into its own rites and ceremonies, Christmas being a prime example. And so it is not surprising that more recently our clergy are happy to get involved in blessing the apple trees, even though the ceremony might still be seen by some as essentially a pagan one.
REVIVAL OF THE ORCHARD WASSAIL
Before I describe some of the elements of the ‘new' forms of Wassail which take place now, it is worth considering why it has re-surfaced in the 21st century. More than one reason can be found but the Caters in their 2013 book, consider that one of the major factors was the folk revival of the 1960s/70s. Folk songs including Wassail songs were being rediscovered, published and recorded and with the formation of folk clubs and annual festivals, this led to a slow but steady and increasing rise in interest in the Wassail. At the same time, Morris teams were being revived and Wassailing gave them a perfect excuse to dance in the mid-winter, besides their existing May and summer engagements.
The next big influence was the formation of Common Ground, a charity set up in 1990. They were aware that many old apple varieties were disappearing fast and there had already been a massive decline in the number of orchards. They invented 'Apple Day' in October as a way of raising public consciousness and this became very successful with various events happening and later spreading throughout the whole month. Waterperry began hosting events including displays of heritage varieties and activities such as apple bobbing for the children. Common Ground also published several apple-related books and then in 2008, a 'Community Orchards Handbook' with suggestions for apple-pressing and Wassail events. Many community orchards are in urban areas, and towns are not the usual places associated with orchard Wassails, so this handbook gave the organisers plenty of scope to re-imagine an event that worked for them. Common Ground was also very much about a 'sense of place', and awareness and celebration of local heritage, not just apples.
The National Trust estimate that around 65% of England's orchards had been lost by the 1950s. The planting of new orchards and the restoration of old ones has become part of the wider 'Green movement'. Producing and eating local food also chimes with the desire for seasonality and a general wish to be 'closer to nature'. The apple is so versatile, it can provide both food and drink; the fruit can be eaten raw, preserved or cooked in many different ways, and the drink can be made alcoholic in the form of wine or cider, or simply bottled as a juice. It is hard to think of another crop which could be celebrated in quite the same way. As a community event, Wassail also has the advantage of happening at an otherwise quiet time of the year when people are feeling rather flat after Christmas.
The Caters recorded over 200 Wassails happening in 2012 but the actual figure was almost certainly higher, and ten years later there are many more taking place in all sorts of orchards, old, new and restored. They are no longer confined to traditional apple-growing regions. A lot of planning goes into these individual events, choosing different elements from the past to create something special for that orchard. There may be a mixture of pagan and Christian, medieval and Victorian, written or oral history based, New Age and spiritual, or indeed whatever you think feels right! Often the local Mummers are invited to perform their plays which generally re-enact a battle between good and evil and involve scenes of death and resurrection. Always there is noise and singing and drinking, not necessarily alcoholic drinks, and a thanking of the trees for the harvest. Firearms are no longer much in evidence, but making a noise still seems essential - perhaps it is simply more fun.
One group of modern Wassailers explained that making a loud noise was to scare off the 'Frost Giants'. A late hard frost at blossom time is of course one of the real threats to the future harvest so this makes perfect sense. It is also a practical explanation for bonfires being lit in the old orchards on cold nights.
Here are some of the characters I have found which play a part in these re-imagined ceremonies - it is a real 'pick and mix' event. What works for a newly-planted orchard may well be different to the ceremony in an established orchard, similarly a rural or urban setting can influence the proceedings. There is nearly always an MC to create an order to the event and lead the gathered assembly, and of course all the characters can dress up in any way they see fit!
Here are some of the characters I have found which play a part in these re-imagined ceremonies - it is a real 'pick and mix' event. What works for a newly-planted orchard may well be different to the ceremony in an established orchard, similarly a rural or urban setting can influence the proceedings. There is nearly always an MC to create an order to the event and lead the gathered assembly, and of course all the characters can dress up in any way they see fit!
- Holly King (from Celtic mythology)
- Holly Boy (accompanies an adult)
- Tom Tit (a small boy, he used to be lifted into the branches)
- Oak King
- Apple Queen/Apple King
- Wassail Queen
- King of the Bean, Queen of the Pea (from medieval Twelfth Night ceremonies, the man or woman who found the bean or pea in the special cake)
- Lord of Misrule (from medieval Twelfth Night ceremonies, or earlier Saturnalia role reversals of master and servant)
- The Butler (was the master of ceremonies at Twelfth Night revels)
- King or Queen Apple Tree (modern, selected as the oldest, biggest, most interestingly shaped etc and the ones to be Wassailed)
- Green Man (character found as far back as the second century AD, a pagan but found carved in stone in medieval Churches, he even appears in St. Andrews in Chinnor thanks to the Victorian restoration works)
- Apple Tree Man (modern? perhaps related to the better known Green Man, alternatively he may be related to the myths of Odin/Woden, the old Norse god). The National Trust magazine article of autumn 2021 states that he is the guardian spirit of the orchard who lives in the oldest tree. The Wassail is held to please him, as it is in him that the fertility of the orchard resides.
- Old Apple Man/Old Apple King tree (similar to above, the oldest tree who represents the whole of the orchard during the Wassail)
Here are some of the events that may now occur during a Wassail:
- Pre-event work parties to mulch the trees or other work needed, apple cakes and juice/cider for the workers
- Decoration of the special trees (hanging items in tree branches goes back a very long way and may be an echo of tree worship), ribbons and shiny things are used
- Feeding the birds - they probably always did eat the bread and cider-soaked toast left for the trees, but some groups now use proper bird food and install bird boxes in the trees. Robins seem to have had a special significance.
- Childrens' craft activities including pre-event preparation, and trails through the orchard
- Beating the trunks and branches with sticks (children seem to enjoy this) whilst making the noise. Thought to encourage the sap to rise, in the way that walnut trees were once beaten to encourage good fruiting.
- Giving the trees offerings of food and drink while singing to them, also food/drink provided for the participants
- 'Rough music' using pots and pans, drums, party poppers instead of shotguns
- Storytelling and orchard games such as Wellie throwing
- Fireworks (perhaps an echo of the fires lit in orchards)
- Mummers plays and Morris dancing (usually the Morris men perform the play)
- Community choir singing
- Blessing the trees, a few words spoken by a Church representative
It is interesting to read of the old tradition in Normandy, a big cider-apple growing region. On the Eve of Epiphany or 'Old Christmas Eve', lighted torches were thrown at the trunks of fruit trees and small bonfires of straw lit under the branches. There are also records of Wassail ceremonies in other northern European countries such as in the Tirol, Austria and in Romania where the trees are given cake. In Germany they held the ceremonies on New Year's Day, and even today the spiced punch drunk in the outdoor Christmas markets and on the ski slopes, keeps the name of Wassail. So, if you join us this year, you will be in very good company as part of the global Wassail - because Wassailing is not and never was unique to England. And a modern Wassail ceremony has even travelled south to the Antipodes, along with an interest in cider making. Communities in Australia and New Zealand have developed their own interpretations, which take place on their mid-winter around June 21st.
Orchard Wassailing can now be seen as an ancient folk custom which once sat alongside other annual events which were all part of the countryside year - such as May Day, Whitsun Ales, Horn Dancing, Well Dressing and Mummering. Today the countryside is very different with far fewer working on the land even if they still live in rural communities, while the majority of people live in towns. So Wassail has adapted to suit the times and provide a positive community event which can be enjoyed by all. It is a way of marking one of the turnings of the year, while raising awareness of the importance of green spaces in all our lives.
Christine Davis
With thanks to the Chilterns Conservation Board and the 'Woodlanders Lives' project volunteers, especially Stuart King, and to Martin Hicks of Tring, for sharing their thoughts and offering advice.
SOURCES
A Little Book of Old Rhymes collected and illustrated by Cicely Mary Barker, 1936
British Calendar Customs England Vol 2, Fixed festivals Jan - May by A R Wright, 1938
Chinnor in Camera by Mary Darmody/Cadle and Pat Whelehan, 1988
Cider, the forgotten miracle by James Crowden, 1999
Discovering Christmas customs and folklore by Margaret Baker, 1994
English Folklore by Christina Hole, 1940
National Trust magazine, Autumn 2021, 'Rich pickings'
Rites and Riots by Bob Pegg, 1981
Sketches of the Bucks countryside by H. Harman, 1934
The Chilterns by Leslie Hepple and Alison Doggett, 1999
The Elder by Chris Howkins, 1996
The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins, 1945
Wassailing, reawakening an ancient folk custom by Colin and Karen Cater, 2013
Your book of Anglo-Saxon England by David Jones, 1976
SOURCES
A Little Book of Old Rhymes collected and illustrated by Cicely Mary Barker, 1936
British Calendar Customs England Vol 2, Fixed festivals Jan - May by A R Wright, 1938
Chinnor in Camera by Mary Darmody/Cadle and Pat Whelehan, 1988
Cider, the forgotten miracle by James Crowden, 1999
Discovering Christmas customs and folklore by Margaret Baker, 1994
English Folklore by Christina Hole, 1940
National Trust magazine, Autumn 2021, 'Rich pickings'
Rites and Riots by Bob Pegg, 1981
Sketches of the Bucks countryside by H. Harman, 1934
The Chilterns by Leslie Hepple and Alison Doggett, 1999
The Elder by Chris Howkins, 1996
The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins, 1945
Wassailing, reawakening an ancient folk custom by Colin and Karen Cater, 2013
Your book of Anglo-Saxon England by David Jones, 1976
Christmas: a short history from solstice to Santa by Andy Thomas, 2019
'Stonehenge: The New Revelation'. Channel 5 TV programme Dec 2021
Websites
Cotswold. info at https://www.cotswolds.info/strange-things/wassailing.shtml
British library at https://www.bl.uk/anglo-saxons
National Trust at https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features Ritual and revelry, the story of wassailing
British library at https://www.bl.uk/anglo-saxons
National Trust at https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features Ritual and revelry, the story of wassailing
https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas Updated 22 Dec 2021 Also extended version available as a film on DVD, 1997.
What a fantastic turnout at this year's wassailing. Thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many likeminded members of the community.
ReplyDeleteAn absolute credit to the organisers. Well done all of you!!
Thoroughly deserve a bountiful harvest.
I'm happy to say that we did indeed enjoy a bountiful harvest this year, there was so much that plenty of apples were left on the ground for the wildlife as well. A bumper year! Christine D.
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