Happy Wassailing:)

The post below was first published on our sister blog, At the grassroots. It’s about the revival of the ancient tradition of wassailing. We’re big on getting back in touch with nature and marking the passage of the seasons. Also, we’re keen advocates of building a sense of community where people feel they genuinely belong: A sense of belonging 27.10.24

It’s not just the projects ranging from community vegetable plots to food banks that offer a sense of involvement and belonging. It’s also the big and not so big events that bring people together. In Keynsham, we have a summer music festival centred around the park in the town and a winter festival along the high street. As well as bring people together, both in their own way mark the passage of the seasons and a more fundamental connection to nature.

We’re far from the only people thinking this way. Paul Cudenec recently penned this piece about the organic radical thinker, Mark Josephs, aka Mark the Mystic Activist: For localism and the love of humanity. He quotes extensively from Mark and this one in particular stood out for me:

Local community. Deep relationships. Responsibility for our locality. Contact with nature - with the trees, the animals, the insects and birds… with the weather, with the waxing and waning moons, with the equinoxes and solstices.

Time out, down time, holy-days. Celebration, appreciation, gratitude. Local, poison-free food. Poison-free water. Creativity and contribution (as against wage slavery).

I believe all of these things favour the evolution and transformation of consciousness - and that asphalt, street lights, traffic noise, plastic food, work-work-work, and junk, escapist entertainment don’t.

I think these wise words resonate with what follows...

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Wassailing: an ancient Pagan ritual conducted in deep mid-winter, to bless Apple trees for a bountiful harvest for the next season.

Gillian Hough

Well, it's mid-winter and we're based in the West Country which is noted for apple trees and cider so, it would be rude to not note and write about this tradition. For a full historical explanation of what this tradition is about, there's this:

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 is the practice of people going door-to-door, singing and offering a drink from the wassail bowl in exchange for gifts; this practice still exists, but has largely been displaced by carol singing. 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. Notable traditional wassailing songs include "Here We Come a-Wassailing", "Gloucestershire Wassail", and "Gower Wassail".

You can read the rest of this Wikipedia entry here.

For a less academic and more joy of life description of what Wassailing is all about plus some practical tips on how to organise your own, there's this piece:

Wassailing - Gillian Hough | Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA)

The term waes hael or wassail is derived from Anglo-Saxon and means be of good health and the response is drinc hael meaning drink and be healthy.

Wassails generally happen post-winter solstice as days get longer and while most happen around new (or old) Twelfth Night, some take place around the second full moon of the year. There are no rules that Wassailing must happen on a specific date – so talk with people and settle on a date which suits your community. In the southern hemisphere, wassails take place in July which is their midwinter.

In the same celebratory vein, there's this as well:

The Many Meanings of Wassail - The Ciderologist | 19.1.22

It’s January, and I’m a cider writer, so, as is written into the Code of Ethics of the Guild of Cider Writers (not yet a real thing, but feels like it might not actually be too far away?), I am duty bound to write about Wassail. The good news is that this ancient custom has, rather wonderfully, been well documented and explored over the last few years.

Why do we see the tradition of Wassailing as being significant? Let us explain... Firstly, in an increasingly atomised society, the celebrations of Wassailing are about creating, maintaining and enhancing a sense of community. Secondly, it's an acknowledgement of the passing of the seasons. Thirdly, it's a recognition of our place in nature.

Community is central to what we're trying to do with At the Grassroots. There are many ways of creating a sense of community. These range from acts of solidarity through to celebrations and rituals with a sense of joy that bring people together. The ancient yet still living tradition of Wassailing is one such celebration.

Even in the digital age we live in, unless someone is glued to their screen 24/7, the passage of the seasons is something that most of us are aware of. A highly commercialised Christmas, preceded by the Winter Solstice is still in some ways, an acknowledgement of having reached the depths of the winter darkness and that soon, the light will start to return. Wassailing and the ritual of wakening apple trees from their slumber is a recognition that the year has turned and that a new growing season will eventually come round again.

Before the age of global supply chains and being able to import apples grown on the other side of the world, for centuries a bountiful domestic apple harvest was a matter of importance. Hence the ceremonies and acts devised to wake the tree from its slumber and to encourage such a harvest. As we're into sustainable, localised food growing and production and by definition, seasonal eating, the tradition of Wassailing does have a particular meaning for us.

Lastly but by no means least, it's a life enhancing, localised, celebratory act of revolt against the dehumanising, digital obsessed, dysfunctional and increasingly dystopian modern world we're forced to endure...