Wassailing is the practice of going door-to-door singing Christmas carols and requesting in return wassail or some other form of refreshment. In modern times it is most commonly known through reference in various traditional Christmas carols (e.g., "Here we come a-wassailing / among the leaves so green"). Singing carols: John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together A Christmas carol (also called a noël) is a carol (song or hymn) whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas, or the winter season in general. ... Wassail is a hot, spiced punch often associated with winter celebrations of northern Europe, usually those connected with holidays such as Christmas, New Years and Twelfth Night. ... Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday that marks the traditional birthdate of Jesus of Nazareth. ...

The practice however 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 The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Feudalism comes from the Late Latin word feudum, itself borrowed from a Germanic root *fehu, a commonly used term in the Middle Ages which means fief, or land held under certain obligations by feodati. ... In a detail of Brueghels Land of Cockaigne (1567) a soft-boiled egg has little feet to rush to the luxuriating peasant who catches drops of honey on his tongue, while roast pigs roam wild: in fact, hunger and harsh winters were realities for the average European in the... Beggars in Samarkand, 1905 Begging includes the various methods used by persons to obtain money, food, shelter, drugs, alcohol, or other things from people they encounter during the course of their travels. ... Here We Come A-Wassailing is a Christmas carol and New Years song. ...

"we are not daily beggars that beg from door to door but we are friendly neighbors 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... The title of Lord of the Manor arose in the English medieval system of Manorialism following the Norman Conquest. ...

"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 a carol such as "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" can be made sense of. This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... We Wish You a Merry Christmas is a popular secular 16th century English carol from West Country of England. ...

Although wassailing is often described in innocuous and sometimes nostalgic terms, the practice has not always been considered so innocent. In fact in early New England 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." The history of figgy pudding dates back to 17th century England. ... Wassail is a hot, spiced punch often associated with winter celebrations of northern Europe, usually those connected with holidays such as Christmas, New Years and Twelfth Night. ...

In cider-producing areas of England, such as the West Country, wassailing also referred to drinking (and singing) the health of trees in the hopes that they might better thrive. Cider in a pint glass Cider (or cyder) is an alcoholic beverage made primarily from the juices of specially grown varieties of apples. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... The West Country is an informal term for the area of south-western England encompasing the counties of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, and Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. ...

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 Traditional Wassail Ceremony

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 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 and so dates from before 1066. Christmas was not celebtrated anywhere before the third century, and only gradually moved northwards through Europe. Charlemagne was crowned on Christmas day 800. It was probably the Normans who brought the celebration to England. Many sources claim that William was crowned king of England on Christmas day 1066. However if you check the words of the Anglo-Saxon Cronicles (see reference below), it was described as "childer-mass day", Holy Innocents Day, or 28th December. Therefore the tradition of wassailing outdates the celebration of Christmas. Traditionally the Wassail is celebrated on Twelfth Night (6th January). However most people insist on wassailing on 'Old Twelvey Night' (17th January) as that would have been the correct date before the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. 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.^{[citation needed]} The ceremonies of each wassail varies from village to village but they generally all have the same core elements. A wassail King and Queen to lead the proceedings, and song and/or a processional tune to be played/sung from one orchard to the next, the wassail Queen will be lifted up into the boughs of the tree where she will place toast that has been soaked in Wassail from the Clayen Cup as a gift the tree spirits and to show them the fruits of what they created the previous year. Then an incantation is usually recited such as It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Christianity. ... The word tradition comes from the Latin word traditio which means to hand down or to hand over. ... Celtic polytheism refers to the religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Celts. ... Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... Twelfth Night is a holiday in some branches of Christianity marking the coming of the Epiphany, or Twelfth Day, and is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the evening of the 5 January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany. In some traditions it is taken to mean... The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar in the world. ... Cider in a pint glass Cider (or cyder) is an alcoholic beverage made primarily from the juices of specially grown varieties of apples. ... For other uses, see Evil (disambiguation). ... The English word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning breath. ...

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 in Carhampton (Somerset) and Whimple (Devon). The West Country is an informal term for the area of south-western England encompasing the counties of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, and Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. ... Carhampton is a village in West Somerset, four miles to the east of Minehead. ... Whimple is a village in East Devon. ...

Private readings about people in Somerset in the 1800s revealed that inhabitants of Somerset practiced the old Wassailing Ceremoney, singing the following lyrics after drinking the cider until they were "merry and gay:" Somerset is a county in the south-west of England. ...

"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."

Source: "Remininiscences of Life in the parish of Street, Somersetshire dated 1909 at pages 25-26 written by an "old inhabitant" William Pursey of Street 1836-1919. Map sources for Street at grid reference ST4836 Street is a town in the county of Somerset, England, situated on a dry spot in the Somerset Levels, at the end of the Polden Hills, two miles south west of Glastonbury. ...

Wassail bowls

Wssail bowls, generally in the shape of goblets, have been preserved. The Worshipful Company of Grocers made very elaborate one in the seventeenth century, decorated with silver . (Ref: http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1965T391). It is so large that is must have passed around as a "loving cup" so that many members of the guild could drink from it. There are surviving examples of "puzzle wassail bowls", with many spouts. As you attempt to drink from one of the spouts, you are drenched from another spout. The drink was either punch, mulled wine or spicy ale.

See also

• Apple Wassail

The Apple Wassail is a traditional form of wassailing practiced in the cider orchards of southwest England during the winter. ...

External links

• Pictures of Wassail Bowls

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Reference to "Childer-mass-day"

• http://www.chrisbutterworth.com/hist/asc1066.htm

• http://www.christmasarchives.com/england.html

• http://www.wassailgames.com/whywassail.html