I finally understand why after 8 years our apple trees have not given us a bountiful harvest. We have been remiss in our duties by not wassailing our trees! Well that will be corrected this year! According to Anglo-Saxon folklore, Asa and I need to bless our apple trees with cider, song, and toast!
The purpose of wassailing is to wake the apple trees and to scare away any evil spirits that may be hiding in the branches, so that there will be a good harvest in Autumn. Although the method differs from village to village across England, basically a Wassail King and Queen need to lead a group of farmers and villagers to their orchard where they encircle the biggest and best tree. They begin the ritual with a blessing, such as:
“Cider from this loving cup,
Too much for mortal man to sup,
About thy roots the goodness spread,
And help you in the year ahead.”
While doing this, the Wassail King will pour cider on the roots of the tree, while the Wassail Queen is lifted high to place toast soaked in wassail, a mulled wine, in the branches. Following the blessing, the revelers burst into a song, such as “The Gloucestershire Wassail.”
“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…”
Other boisterous incantations sung include:
“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 boys, holler hurrah!”
Following the singing, the gathered crowd needs to scream, bang pots and pans, and may even shoot off a volley of gunfire into the branches, all to scare away the evil spirits that may be lurking, while simultaneously awaking the good spirits that live in the tree.
Traditionally wassailing is celebrated on Twelfth Night, usually January 5th or 6th. However, there’s no time like the present for Asa and I to head out and wassail our apple trees! If you’d like to learn more about wassailing and how it eventually morphed into an excuse to visit homes for free food as popularized in the song, “Here We Come A-Wassailing,” we recommend visiting “The Web’s Wassail Epicenter,” or watching “Christmas Carols with Lucy Worsley.”
