Clevedon in North Somerset holds an annual wassailing event at the Clevedon Community Orchard, combining the traditional elements of the festival with the entertainment and music of the Bristol Morris Men. Many new, commercial or "revival" wassails have also been introduced throughout the West Country, such as those in Stoke Gabriel and Sandford, Devon. The crowd then moves onto the next orchard.Īs the largest cider producing region of the country, the West Country hosts historic wassails annually, such as Whimple in Devon and Carhampton in Somerset, both on 17 January, or old Twelfth Night. This incantation is followed by noise-making from the assembled crowd until the gunsmen give a final volley through the branches. Such complaints were also common in the early days of the United States, where the practice (and its negative connotations) had taken root by the early 1800s it led to efforts from the American merchant class to promote a more sanitized Christmas. The example of the exchange is seen in their demand for " figgy pudding" and "good cheer", i.e., the wassail beverage, without which the wassailers in the song will not leave "We won't go until we get some, so bring some out here". If the householder refused, he was usually cursed, and occasionally his house was vandalized. Wassailing was associated with rowdy bands of young men who would enter the homes of wealthy neighbours and demand free food and drink (in a manner similar to the modern children's Halloween practice of trick-or-treating). Similar traditions have also been traced to Greece and the country of Georgia. Īlthough wassailing is often described in innocuous and sometimes nostalgic terms-still practised in some parts of Scotland and Northern England on New Years Day as " first-footing"-the practice in England has not always been considered so innocent. The carol lies in the English tradition where wealthy people of the community gave Christmas treats to the carollers on Christmas Eve such as 'figgy puddings'. Wassailing is the background practice against which an English carol such as " We Wish You a Merry Christmas" can be made sense of. This would be given in the form of the song being sung. This point is made in the song " Here We Come A-wassailing", when the wassailers inform the lord of the house that In the middle ages, the wassail was a reciprocal exchange between the feudal lords and their peasants as a form of recipient-initiated charitable giving, to be distinguished from begging. Some people still wassail on "Old Twelvey Night", January 17, as it would have been before the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. Traditionally, the wassail is celebrated on Twelfth Night (variously on either January 5 or 6). 1300, the sense had extended to the drink itself, especially to the spiced ale used in Twelfth-night and Christmas Eve celebrations, and by 1598 it was being applied to the custom of drinking healths on those nights. Later it developed into the first part of a drinking formula "wassail.drinkhail". It was initially used in the sense of 'hail' or 'farewell'. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "wassail" originated as a borrowing from the Old Norse salutation ves heill, corresponding to Old English hál wes þú or wes hál literally meaning 'be in good health' or 'be fortunate'.
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