A Yuletide Revel

(photos from Revels 2000)

The Wassayl Bolle

Wassailing The word wassail stems from the old Anglo-Saxon toast, "Wass Heil," meaning "be well" or "good health" (or more freely, even "cheers.") The essence of the custom is the drinking to one another's health from a large communal 'wassail bowl,' usually turned from ash or maple and often richly decorated with ribbons. This can be passed round a private party; but it was more frequently borne from house to house by 'wassailers' who expected it to be filled with some such heady concoction as 'Lamb's Wool' - hot ale, nutmeg and sugar, with toast and roasted crab apples. Wassailers might come on Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, or Twelfth Night, according to local custom. Our modem carol singing evolved from this tradition. Wassailing the Apple Trees Until quite recently the health of farm animals, beehives and even field crops, as well as that of humans, was ceremonially saluted during the wassailing. So too, in the cider-making regions of southern and western England was the health of apple orchards. Wassailers would gather round a big old tree chosen to represent its fellows and sing:

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 person drink up the cup. Here's health to the old apple tree

SHOUTS: Capfulls! Hatfulls! Baskets full! Bushels full! Barrels full! Barn floors full!

- and a little heap under the stairs'

The good Doctor, though he cannot heal St. George, showers the audience with healthy pills (masquerading as marshmallows).

 

A Yuletide Revel