One 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 . ..but many people like to wassail all winter!
The ceremonies of each wassail vary between cider making villages 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). Then an incantation is usually recited such as:
The ceremonies of each wassail vary between cider making villages 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). Then an incantation is usually recited such as:
- 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!
- This piece by Mackintosh was done as panels for a Tea Room in Glasgow. I love the little mushrooms in this depiction.
- Wassail means BE HEALTHY:
- 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
No comments:
Post a Comment