 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Wassailing, Dec. 6th $10.00 per adult - $5.00 per child, including Wassail food, beverages, and live music! Celebrate Christmas in the Country with a toast to the apple trees. Enjoy the old English tradition of Wassailing through the orchard, and partake of the fruits of our harvest around a crackling bonfire!! Delight your palate with fabulous foods from fresh orchard-grown ingredients. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Toast the apple trees with one of our great hot wassails -- made from mulled cider, brown ale, apple wine, or Calvados. You might even try floating toast in your drink! Enhance your revelry and cheer with Wassailing games and songs. Wear your Renaissance Fair attire, if you're so inclined! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Wassailing has been associated with Christmas and New Year as far back as the 1400s. It was a way of passing on good wishes among family and friends. Wassail is an ale-based drink seasoned with spices and honey. It was served from huge bowls, often made of silver or pewter. The Wassail bowl would be passed around with the greeting, 'Wassail'. Wassail gets its name from the Old English term "waes hael", meaning "be well". It was a Saxon custom that, at the start of each year, the lord of the manor would shout 'waes hael'. The assembled crowd would reply 'drinc hael', meaning 'drink and be healthy'. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
As time went on, the
tradition was carried on by people going from door to door, bearing
good wishes and a wassail bowl of hot, spiced ale. In return people
in the houses gave them drink, money and Christmas fayre and they
believed they would receive good luck for the year to come.
The contents of the bowl varied in different parts of the country, but a popular one was known as lambswool. It consisted of ale, baked apples, sugar, spices, eggs, and cream served with little pieces of bread or toast. It was the bread floating on the top that made it look like lamb's wool. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
One of the most popular Wassailing
Carols goes like this: Here we come a-wassailing |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Wassailing of Apple Trees Apple trees were sprinkled with wassail to ensure a good crop. Villagers would gather around the apple trees with shotguns or pots and pans and made a tremendous racket to raise the Sleeping Tree Spirit and to scare off demons. A toast was then drunk from the Wassail Cup. This custom was especially important during a time when part of a laborer's wages was paid in apple cider. Landlords needed a good apple crop to attract good workers. Wassailing was meant to keep the tree safe from evil spirits until the next year's apples appeared. Apple Tree Wassail Today the wassail songs are being sung again at farms and pubs in several parts of England by people who decided to revive the old custom of blessing the crops and singing to good health. For more information about Wassailing, click here. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Site designed and hosted by Plum Creek Associates
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
