Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
If you would like to write a summary for this topic, email phil [at] gyford [dot] com
Wikipedia
The word Wassail refers to several related traditions; first and foremost wassailing is an ancient southern English tradition that is performed with the intention of ensuring a good crop of cider apples for the next year's harvest[1]. It also refers to both the salute 'Waes Hail', the term itself is a contraction of the Middle English phrase wæs hæl, meaning literally 'good health' or 'be you healthy' and to the drink of wassail which is a hot mulled cider traditionally drunk as an integral part of the wassail ceremony.
[edit] Wassailling
Main article: Wassailing
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!
Here’s to thee, old apple-tree, Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow, And whence thou mayst bear apples enow! Hats-full! Caps-full! Bushel, bushel sacks-full! And my pockets full, too! Hurra![2]
In the cider-producing counties in the South West of England (primarily Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire) or South East England (Kent, Sussex and Essex, Suffolk) wassailing refers to a traditional ceremony that involves singing and drinking the health of trees in the hopes that they might better thrive. 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.[3] The ceremonies of each wassail vary from village to village but they generally all have 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 will then be lifted up into the boughs of the tree where she will 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).In some counties the youngest boy or "Tom Tit" would step in for the Queen and hang the cider soaked toast in the tree. Then an incantation is usually recited such as variant of:
[edit] Wassail as a beverage
Wassail the beverage is a hot, mulled punch often associated with Yuletide. Historically, the drink was a mulled cider made with sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg and topped with slices of toast. Modern recipes begin with a base of wine, fruit juice, or mulled ale, sometimes with brandy or sherry added. Apples or oranges are often added to the mix. While the beverage typically served as "wassail" at modern holiday feasts with a medieval theme most closely resembles mulled cider, historical wassail drinks were completely different, more likely to be mulled beer or mead. Sugar, ale, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon would be placed in a bowl, heated, and topped with slices of toast as sops.
Hence the first stanza of the traditional carol the Gloucestershire Wassail dating back to the Middle Ages:
Wassail! wassail! all over the town, Our toast it is white and our ale it is brown; Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree; With the wassailing bowl, we'll drink to thee.
At Carhampton, near Minehead, the Apple Orchard Wassailing is held on the Old Twelfth Night (17 January) as a ritual to ask God for a good apple harvest. The villagers form a circle around the largest apple tree, hang pieces of toast soaked in cider in the branches for the robins, who represent the 'good spirits' of the tree. A shotgun is fired overhead to scare away evil spirits and the group sings, the following being the last verse:
Old Apple tree, old apple tree; We've come to wassail thee; To bear and to bow apples enow; Hats full, caps full, three bushel bags full; Barn floors full and a little heap under the stairs.[4]
[edit] Lamb's wool
Lamb's wool or lambswool is a variety of wassail made from ale, baked apples, sugar and spices [5].
Next crowne the bowle full of With gentle Lambs wooll, Adde sugar, nutmeg, and ginger, With store of ale too, And thus ye must doe To make the Wassaile a swinger.[6]
In ancient tradition, the first day of November was dedicated to the angel presiding over fruits, seeds, &c. and was named La Mas Ubhal, that is, the day of the apple fruit, and being pronounced lamasool. The English have corrupted the name to lamb's-wool. [7]
[edit] Culture
This drink would be roughly equivalent to beer or wine in many contemporary western cultures. People drank it at social gatherings. "Come butler, come fill us a bowl of the best/... please God send our master a good cask of ale..." sung throughout the towns of the Germanic nations, sending good luck to even one's own master in the new year.
The British rock band Blur released a cover of the song, with each member taking a verse. The release was limited to 500 7-inch pressings, which were given out at a concert in 1992.
Wassail was featured on the BBC Two special Oz and Hugh Drink to Christmas, which aired on Sunday, 20 December 2009. Oz Clarke and Hugh Dennis sampled the drink and the wassailing party in Southwest England as part of their challenge to find Britain's best Christmas drinks.
It was mentioned in the cult classic television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 in one of their sketches in between their heckling of awful films. The Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo (both robots) ask Mike Nelson (their unofficial human captain) to provide some, and when asked to further explain what exactly wassail was, they admitted to having no idea, though they offer a guess that it might be an 'anti-inflammatory'. Upon actually getting some, they describe it as 'skunky', discovering it to be a 500-year-old batch.
[edit] Bibliography
- Bladey, Conrad Jay (2002). Do the Wassail: A Short Guide to Wassail, Songs, Customs, Recipes and Traditions: How to Have a Fine Geegaw of a Wassail!, Hutman Productions, ISBN 0970238673.
- Gayre, Robert (1948). Wassail! In Mazers of Mead: an account of mead, metheglin, sack and other ancient liquors, and of the mazer cups out of which they were drunk, with some comment upon the drinking customs of our forebears, Phillimore & Co. Ltd., London.
[edit] External links
- Alton Brown Wassail Recipe
- Authentic Lambswool Recipe - RecipeWISE
- Wassail Recipe
- The Whimple Wassail (Whimple History Society)
- Making a wassail bowl
- Wassailing history and examples
The Wiktionary entry for wassail
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "wassail". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
[edit] References
- ^ "Wassailing". RecipeWISE. http://recipewise.co.uk/the-wassail. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
- ^ Bellinger, Robin. "Wassailing". the Paris Review Daily. http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/12/22/wassailing/. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
- ^ "Wassailing". England in Particular. Common Ground. http://www.england-in-particular.info/new/n-wass.html. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
- ^ Christian, Roy (1972). Old English Customs. Pub. David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-5741-7. P.113.
- ^ http://recipewise.co.uk/lambswool Authentic Wassail Drink Recipe - RecipeWISE.
- ^ From ‘Oxford Night Caps’, by Richard Cook, Published 1835
- ^ http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Notes_On_Carols/wassailing.htm
.jpg)
Annotations
-
was·sail (wsl, w-sl) {from on line free dictionary}
n.1. a. A salutation or toast given in drinking someone’s health or as an expression of good will at a festivity.
b. The drink used in such toasting, commonly ale or wine spiced with roasted apples and sugar.
2. A festivity characterized by much drinking.
v. was·sailed, was·sail·ing, was·sails
v.tr.
To drink to the health of; toast.
v.intr.
To engage in or drink a wassail.
[Middle English, contraction of wæshæil, be healthy, from Old Norse ves heill : ves, imperative sing. of vera, to be; see wes-1 in Indo-European roots + heill, healthy; see kailo- in Indo-European roots.]
-
More from the OED:
1. A salutation used when presenting a cup of wine to a guest, or drinking the health of a person, the reply being DRINK-HAIL.
c1205 LAY. 14309 Reowen..bar an hir honde ane guldene bolle i-uulled mid wine..& …
3. A custom formerly observed on Twelfth-night and New-Year’s eve of drinking healths from the wassail-bowl. …..
1616 ….. Masque of Christmas 2 Enter..Wassal, Like a neat Sempster, and Songster; her Page bearing a browne bowle, drest with Ribbands. 1661 New Carolls for Christmas, For Twelfth-day iii, The Wassell well spiced, about shall go round.
A custom formerly observed on Twelfth-night and New-Year’s eve of drinking healths from the wassail-bowl
Also, ? the person invited to drink from the wassail-bowl. Obs.
c1650 New Christmas Carols, Carrol for Wassel-Bowl 7 Good Dame here at your Door Our Wassel we begin.
Wassail er : One who takes part in riotous festivities; a reveller.
1634 MILTON Comus 179, I should be loath To meet the rudenesse, and swill’d insolence Of such late Wassailers
-
additional back reference: a washeallbowle1 woman and girl came to us and sung to us.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1661/12/26/
The wenches with their wassall bowls About the streets are singing.” —Wither’s Christmas Carol.
The old custom of carrying the wassail bowl from door to door, with songs and merriment, in Christmas week, is still observed in some of our rural districts.—B.
Wassail
There’s a website devoted to the tradition of making wassail - http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5567/wassail.html A reversion to saturnalia! from Aus. Susan.