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Wassailing The Trees The tradition of wassailing falls into two distinct categories: The House-Visiting wassail and the Orchard-Visiting wassail. The House-Visiting wassail is the practice of people going door-to-door singing Christmas carols. The Orchard-Visiting wassail refers to the ancient custom of visiting orchards, reciting incantations and singing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year.
"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."
Most popular in rural cider-producing areas, this custom consisted of drinking (and singing) the health of trees in the hopes that they would thrive. Traditionally, this occured on old "twelfth night", the 12th night after Christmas eve, or January 17th on the old calendar.
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 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.
The ceremonies of each wassail vary from village to village but they generally all had the same core elements. A wassail King and Queen lead the song and/or a processional tune to be played/sung from one orchard to the next, the wassail Queen would then be lifted up into the boughs of the tree where she would place toast soaked in Wassail from the Clayen Cup as a gift to the tree spirits (and to show the fruits created the previous year). Then an incantation is usually recited such as
“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!”
In some counties the youngest boy or "Tom Tit" stood in for the Queen and hung the cider soaked toast in the tree.
Then the assembled crowd would 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 (powder only - no shot - the idea being to wake the trees up, not injure them) to make sure the work is done and then off to the next orchard.
In a simplified version of the ceremony, families would hold a feast with cakes, cider and in some areas beer and ale too. After a time of eating and drinking everyone trooped out to the orchard to wassail the trees .
Ale, beer or cider soaked toast, in some areas special cakes, would be placed in the tree branches or in a fork of the tree, and then be splashed with more cider. Trees might be beaten with sticks, pounded on, pots and pans clanged, and in appropriate eras, guns that had been loaded with just powder (no shot) would be fired at the trees.
While this went on, others in the group bowed their heads and sang the special "wassail song".
Variations include:
Old apple tree, we'll wassail thee And hoping thou wilt bear The Lord does know where we shall be To be merry another year. To blow well and to bear well And so merry let us be Let every man drink up his cup And health to the old apple tree
(Spoken) Apples now, hat-fulls, three bushel bag-fulls, tallets ole-fulls, barn's floor-fulls, little heap under the stairs Hip Hip Hooroo (3 times)
Heat a large container of ale or beer - about 3 or 4 pints. Add 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup mixed spices (cinnamon sticks and whole cloves are also excellent)
Cut up 2 or 3 small sweet apples and add those. Add 1 1/4 cup of pineapple juice and the same of orange. Squeeze 2 lemons into the brew.
Place over a slow flame; then, before it begins to boil, take off the heat and whip up some cream. Let this float on top of the brew like foam.
Put into a suitably large bowl (the more ornate the better).
Toast several slices of bread, if you have fruit cake you can use pieces of that instead.
Now, with a few friends, go out to the tree or trees (see note below).
Note: These don't have to be apple trees, since any tree will benefit from a well-intentioned blessing, but it is traditional to wassail fruit-bearing trees. You can wassail the trees in your yard, near your home, or trees in some previously selected area.
Dip pieces of toasted bread into the brew and place in the branches of the tree. Hang pieces of bread and cake from the higher twigs to encourage robins (guardian spirits of the trees).
Bend the lower branches down and dip their ends in the brew.
Wet the roots liberally with the brew. Pass the rest around and when everyone is thoroughly warmed up, sing a wassailing song.
Lift your glasses to the tree and shout "Huzzah!" three times as loudly as you can.
