Old Twelfth Night - wassailing the apple trees

"It is said that most villages had their own wassailing song. With the revival of interest in traditional orchards and the growth of community orchards, wassailing has become a part of the calendar once again.

'Wassail' comes from the Anglo-Saxon waes haeil - to be healthy, so wassailing apple trees was a way of encouraging a good crop in the following season. It usually took place after dark on Old Twelfth Night, 17 January, but could also occur on other days around Christmas and the New Year.

Often farm workers and villagers carrying lanterns, a pail and pitcher full of cider, shotguns and horns, walk to their local orchard, which is sometimes lit by bonfires, and gather round the largest or most prolific tree. This tree is known as the Apple Tree Man and is feted as the guardian of the orchard. Cider or beer is poured on its roots and pieces of soaked toast or cake put in the branches for the robins - guardian spirits of the trees. Often the tips of the lowest branches are drawn down and dipped into the pail of cider.

The wassailers fill their earthenware cups with cider and toss it into the branches. They then refill their cups and drink and sing a toast to the tree ... To drive away evil spirits and wake up the sleeping trees, cow horns are blown, trays and buckets beaten and shotguns fired into the upper branches - as much noise as possible is made ... The wassail bowl went round from house to house in the evenings during the Twelve Days of Christmas and often in the last weeks of Advent. A mixture of hot ale, spices, sugar and roasted apples, sometimes with eggs and thick cream floating on it, was known as Lamb's Wool in Gloucestershire."
From 'Wassailing', p.430.

What a wonderful image and a fantastic theme for a really green wedding and terribly chic too. If you're planning a January eco wedding in 2008, the Wassail festival could be a way of bringing together all the green elements you would like to include like local produce, roaring bonfires, hearty singing, lanterns and candles, morris dancing, folk songs and an apple queen bride. Local cider made from organic apples, a hog roast and apple pie would be perfect ingredients for the wedding feast.

Find out more about wassailing, local festivals and traditions and learn more about the unique characteristics of English life at the Common Ground website.