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n One ancient Christmas custom is the wassail, whichnrefers to the toast, the practice and the drink. The toast comes fromnthe Middle English wæs hæl meaning ‘be healthy’ or, as we still say,n‘good health’ and the response was drinc hæl – ‘drink healthy’. The wordnhæl remains in modern English as ‘hale’ meaning ‘well’, as in ‘hale andnhearty’.
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| The Wassail Bowl |
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nA communal drinking bowl, the wassail bowl, would be held by onenperson who would toast his neighbour ‘wæs hæl’ and when the response ‘drincnhæl’ came, the bowl would be passed with a kiss, drunk from and the toastnrepeated to the next in the company. The bowl would be filled with LambsnWool, a drink made from sweetened ale or cider spiced with nutmeg, cinnamonnand ginger, into which roasted apples were added, (In A Midsummer Night’snDream, Puck says, “And sometimes lurk I in a gossip’s bowl, In very likeness of a roasted crab.”)
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| Wassailing the Orchard |
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nIn southern counties,nmulled cider was used, and the wassailers would visit the cider apple and othernfruit tree orchards and sing the trees awake, and scare off the evil spirits,nensuring a good harvest in the following year. The details of the ceremonyndiffered from village to village and from county to county, but the centralnelements of the procession, the singing, the wassail drinking and decking thentrees with slices of toast soaked in the bowl (to attract Robins), were commonnto most. Another practice was ‘rough music’ which, as the name suggests, was anraucous performance on drums, trumpets and other instruments, with kettles andnpans being rattled and banged, accompanied by whistles and roars, all meant tonscare away unwanted influences and spirits.
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| Wassailing in the Town |
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nIn other areas, the wassailersnwould go from house to house, singing and collecting alms, and either offeringnpeople a drink from the bowl or taking an empty bowl, expecting it to benfilled. There were a great many old wassailing songs, sung to ancient tunes,nwith some very poetic and others mere doggerel but all dating far back in time.nPerhaps the most famous is the Gloucestershire Wassail,
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n“Wassail,nwassail, all over the town,n
nOur toast it is white, our ale it is brown;n
nOurnbowl it is made of the mapling [or rosemary] tree,n
nWith the wassailing bowl wenwill drink unto thee.”n
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| The Gloucestershire Wassail |
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nAnother famous wassail, often sung by children, is;
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n“Here we come anwassailing,n
nAmong the leaves so green,n
nHere we come a wandering,n
nSo fair to benseen.”n
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nThe poet Robert Herrick wrote a short verse, Christmas Eve annother ceremonie,
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n“Wassaile the Trees, that they may bearen
nYou manyna Plum, and many a Peare:n
nFor more ornlesse fruits they will bring,n
nAs you doe give them Wassailing.”n
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nThe wassailnsongs are a strange combination of the traditional drinking songs and morenreligious elements, brought together in an unusual and unexpected mix.
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| Wassailing |
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nWassailing began on Christmas Eve and could continue to Twelfth Night, when thencelebrations ended with more spiced ale and special spiced cakes, hence thenexpression ‘Cakes and Ale.’ If you fancy trying a wassail bowl of yournown, this is a recipe from the 1870s:
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n“Heat in a saucepan a pint of Burtonnale, with half a pound of sugar, a grated nutmeg, and half an ounce of gratednginger; after it has just boiled up, add a quart more ale, four glasses ofngolden sherry, and a couple of ounces of lump sugar that has been rubbed over thenoutside of a lemon. Add also a few thin slices of lemon. Make the whole mixturenhot without boiling it, and add half a dozen roasted apples that have had thencores stamped out and cut, but that have not been peeled.”n
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nWassailing fellnfrom favour during the Victorian age and was replaced by the similar custom ofncarolling. It is said that the pub name The Pig and Whistle comes from ancorruption of Peg and Wassail, in reference to the Peg tankardsnintroduced in Saxon times.
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