A traditional English song sung at Christmas and New Year.
As Wikipedia points out:- The tradition of wassailing (alt sp wasselling) falls into two distinct categories:-
The House-Visiting wassail and the Orchard-Visiting wassail.
The House-Visiting wassail, caroling by another name, is the practice of people going door-to-door singing Christmas carols. The Orchard-Visiting wassail refers to the ancient custom of visiting orchards in cider-producing regions of England, reciting incantations and singing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year.
I am writing this from my home in the cider producing county of Worcestershire late on Christmas eve.
It is an old favourite song of mine from this time of year, although it is premature of me to post it today. Traditionally, the wassail is celebrated on Twelfth Night (mostly regarded as January 6, but more properly the evening of January 5).
However, it states in Wikipedia that..."most people insist on wassailing on 'Old Twelvey Night' (January 17) as that would have been the correct date before the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in 1752.
The roots of wassailing go back as far as the political unification of England, first accomplished under Æthelstan in 927 and definitively established after further conflicts by Eadred in 953.
The roots of wassailing and this song go back to those distant times.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassailing
Compliments of the Season!
A beautiful folk song indeed, AA, one that keep alive both Christmas and the harvest festivities. It is interesting how Christmas has evolved or rather been reinvented from more leisurely feudal and early industrial times to our own consumer-driven holiday "deadlines" of today.
ReplyDeleteThanks for distinguishing the two wassails festivities, and providing the Wikipedia links.
And best wishes for 2014, which is not far from you and the good people of Worcestershire (and their cider) as I right this. ;-)
Thanks Doug. I'm glad you like the song I am very fond of it myself. I like these acapella renditions a lot. Yes the Christmas "deadline" has passed again for another year, I think the local supermarkets around here have their Valentines Day stuff on display now.
DeleteI think the difference between wassailing or caroling around the neighbourhood and the orchard wassail is interesting too. The latter carries the mark of the Druids on it I think, this is particualrly evident in the presence of mistletoe in apple orchards.
The winter solstice was called 'Alban Arthan' by the Druids and according to Bardic Tradition, was the time when the Chief Druid would cut the sacred mistletoe from the Oak and the Apple. In cultures across pre-Christian Europe, mistletoe was seen as a representation of divine male essence (and thus romance, fertility and vitality).
According to Pliny the Elder, the Celts considered it a remedy for barrenness in animals and an antidote to poison.
So there we have some connection between the carousing and the orchard wasail perhaps Doug?
All the best in 2014