After Christmas, up pops wassailing, nominally on Twelfth Night (5 Jan), to bring welcome light and laughter.
In medieval times, wassailing would involve going door-to-door offering drink, song and dancing in exchange for gifts, but this has largely evolved into ceremonies to bless fruit trees: so-called orchard wassails.
These are commonly in the cider-making counties of England’s west country and comprise music, dancing, mulled cider served in a wooden wassail bowl and appeals to the gods to provide a fruitful harvest.
The origins are murky but the word comes from Old English ‘waes hael!’ or Norse ‘ves heil!’ meaning ‘be hale!’ or ‘your health!’ and was soon applied to drinking one’s health.
Today’s events, which take place between now and February, also include hanging cider-soaked toast in trees and banging pots to drive away evil spirits.
