The centuries-old tradition of wassailing has never been so popular. From community orchards and neighbourhood streets to family gardens, more and more people are reviving the winter ritual of toasting their fruit trees and wishing them a fruitful harvest. But what’s the story behind wassailing? And how do you know if you’re doing it right?
To help, we’re hosting a wassail training event in North Devon where people can learn about the origins of wassailing and how to set up their own wassail. The training day is at Jubilee Hall in Swimbridge on Saturday 19 October from 3.30pm to 7.30pm and includes a fitting tea of cider and apple cake. The event is timed to coincide with Apple Day on 21 October, celebrating the apple harvest and looking forward to ensuring a good harvest next year.
The word wassail derives from the Saxon ‘Waes Hael’, which was a goodwill phrase people would say to each other meaning ‘be hale’ or ‘good health’. But wassailing goes back much further than Saxon times because it was originally a pagan ritual.
Wassails have regional differences. At the training event, people will learn about two South West variations. Our Creative Director, Marilyn Tucker, explained: “We’re particularly looking at Landkey in Devon and Bodmin in Cornwall.
“Most people think of wassailing being done only in orchards, but that’s not so. They’ve been doing wassailing in Bodmin for hundreds of years – in fact, it was first recorded there in 1624 and they’ve done it ever since. Their town wassailers go around people’s houses and businesses and visit the local pubs, singing wassailing songs.
“That’s one way to go wassailing. The other, which is traditional in rural parts like Landkey, is to visit the local orchard and sing to the trees and generally make a din to ward off bad spirits and ensure a good harvest for that year. Therefore, the Landkey wassailers, who are a much newer group, hold their event at the Millennium Orchard in the village.”
Wassailers from the Bodmin and Landkey groups will be at the training day, and some of our singers and musicians will be there to teach the Apple Tree Wassail song. The event will finish with a question-and-answer session, and people will be given access to a learning website: “If you want to do a wassail in your own street with your neighbours, or around an apple tree as a family, or organise a community wassail at a local orchard, this training will help you to go about it,” said Marilyn.
“It’s lovely that wassailing has become so popular again, but we want to preserve the tradition as accurately as we can, and it would be nice for people to understand the significance of how it fits into our customs. So we’ll also be talking about the roots of wassailing as a celebration and why it’s associated with twelfth night in January, which historically is the correct time to do it. And although wassailing is very much an English tradition, we’ll be looking at how it relates to other traditions as well.”
The event is funded by Arts Council England and is part of a bigger project called Westcountry Midwinter Music, which also looks at village carols in the region. The day is supported by Dartington Glass of North Devon and sponsored by Landkey cider producers, Green Man Cider, who’ll have a range of their bottled cider to purchase.
The wassail training day is being promoted by Beaford Arts. Visit their website to book tickets, £30 admission (includes light buffet tea with cider and apple cake). www.beaford.org/events/wassail.
