Recipe for a Do It Yourself Wassail

The word wassail comes from the Old Norse phrase ‘waes hael’, literally meaning ‘be healthy’ (as in hale & hearty). It cultivates & celebrates a sense of shared merry-making in mid-winter when it’s dark and cold outside. In the West Country the focus of a wassail is the apple orchard, where we gather together not only to bring cheer to ourselves but also remember the naked trees in their dormant state – being thankful for their generous abundance over the last year & wishing them well for the growing year ahead. It's a reciprocal ritual: a good-spirited, merry wassail in winter ensures a good, plentiful apple harvest in autumn. Sadly, this year it’s not possible to congregate with a revelry of friends and family in the orchard but we can keep the flame alive with a solo or ‘bubble’ wassail in the garden or any local community space with an apple tree…

 

(Picture by Annie Maudsley)

Key Ingredients: pieces of home-made toast, some local cider in a large jug/bowl (hot & mulled or cold & au naturelle), a crown made out ivy and/or other evergreen vegetation, old pots & pans.

Suggested method (adapt as necessary):

1.     Choose a Wassail Queen or King (or both!) from your bubble to lead the ceremony. E.g. throw an apple to be caught or hide a coin in a cake. If it’s just you, then that’s easy! The Queen/King wears the crown alongside a suitable expression of serene ceremonial grandeur…

2.     Process together en masse into the orchard/garden. Music, dance and fire adds to the sense of occasion (otherwise hum the theme-tune to the Archers out loud!) Make your way to the biggest/oldest/only apple tree in the orchard or garden, known as the Apple Tree Man. Circle 3 times clockwise in a merry, mincing manner around the tree then stand facing his trunk.

3.     Scare away the bad spirits and malignant elements from the trees with loud noises: banging of pots & pans or howling loudly; the louder the better (neighbours allowing). Some folk do this at the end but I think it’s right to clear away the bad before inviting in the good spirits (or do both!).

4.     Sing to the tree. There are many wonderful wassail songs, named after their place of origin e.g. Somerset wassail, Gower wassail, Cornish wassail etc. I usually sing these words: “Old Apple Tree we wassail thee and hoping thou wilt bear/ For who knows where we all shall be at apple time this year/ For to fare well and to bear well and merry all let us be/ Let everybody take off their hats and sing to the Old Apple Tree.” (Tune here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p05vfp66)

5.     The Wassail Queen dunks the toast in the cider bowl (called the Loving Cup) then places pieces in the branches of the trees to feed the birds, especially robins (symbols of Robin Goodfellow), and to bring good fortune and fertility into the orchard for the year ahead.

6.     Liberally sprinkle the cider from the Loving Cup onto the roots of the tree, giving a little goodness back to the source of our sustenance. Don't forget to have a hearty slurp of cider yourself whilst shouting out loud: “Waes Hael!” The traditional reply is “Drinc Hael!” meaning 'drink healthy' (self-defining term!).

7.     Propose a toast, in words, to the Apple Tree Man, such as this:

Apple tree, apple tree

What you have given to us, we give back to you

Grow well roots and bear well tops

Next year may you have a bumper apple crop

Hatfuls and capfuls and three-bushel bagfuls

And little heaps of apples under the stairs

Pip pip [everyone answers: hooray!]