Wassail the apple tree

Introduction to ' Wassail the apple tree’

Another Twelfth Night celebration was the ritual of wassailing the apple trees. This tradition was popular in the South of England, especially in the West Country.

The purpose of wassailing is to awake the apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit in the autumn. The tradition faded in the early half of the 20th century, although it still survives in modernised form in about 30 villages or farms, it is now done mainly for profit.

Some do it on Twelfth Night, 5^th January, some on old Twelfth Night, 17^th January. The old way of doing it involved the young men of the village; plough hands, farm labourers etc coming together as a band and going from farm to farm to drink to the health of the leading apple tree. This was mostly done as a way to get drunk for free! In exchange for what would be either mulled cider or ale one would sing to the tree, make libations and dip toast into the wassail and arrange it in the branches of the tree to attract ‘the good spirits’ and no doubt make the robins and sparrows a bit tipsy the next day.

There were regional variations to the songs many of which can be easily found today. From the placing of the toast in the branches of the tree we derive the modern expression ‘to raise a toast’.

 Wassail the apple tree (in West Country accent)

Each year we come, without invite,

Thine apple tree, to wassail thee.

Coldest and darkest, twelfth tide night,

Give up thine cider, now for free.

Here’s health to thee, old apple-tree,

And whence thou mayest, bud and bear.

Old apple tree, we'll wassail thee,

To be merry, another year.

We raise the hallowed, wassail toast,

We hope thee wilt, have apples spare.

Next harvest, double apples boast,

And buckets of, cider to share.

The hallowed toast, in branches placed,

To invite thy, good spirits near.

We hope our brew’s, with spirit laced,

To keep us warm, this time of year.

Libations made, upon the ground,

Here’s health to thee, old apple tree.

We sing to thee, and dance around,

Good spirits we, doth welcome thee.

Contribute to, the wassail bowl,

The cider will, do us no harm.

As night goes on, without control,

We do lumber, from farm to farm.

Let every man, drink up his cup,

And so merry, let us lads be.

We have apple cider, to sup,

To make us lads tipsy, for free.

So don’t forget, the good old ways,

Set thine finest, cider aside.

So we canst our own, tankards raise,

May there be cider, next Twelfthtide.

Copyright Andrew Rea 2011

The thirteenth and last silly dragon

The serpent king rose from his pearly throne,

His invoking spell to intone,

He spun round and round,

Until spell was bound,

And produced a titanic cyclone.

Twelfth Night

Introduction to 'Twelfth Night' (5th January, set in the first half of the 19th century)

Twelfth Night Cake contains a dried pea and bean and is distributed in such a way that a lucky woman finds the pea and lucky man finds the bean and crowned pea queen and bean king aka the lord and lady of misrule (compare Saturnalia). It is their duties to get the party going by telling people to do crazy things including cross dressing and animal guising.

During the 19th century it became normal to take down the festive decorations by Twelfth Night, previously they had stayed up until Candlemas (compare present practices in countries such as Poland and Spain).

In Victorian Britain people would have gathered in a circle about a fire and drunk wassail from a loving cup (wassail bowl), these tended to be large bowls decorated with a foliate pattern and with evergreen leaves woven through the handles around the outside.

The practice was to pass the bowl to ones neighbour with a kiss, the recipient would raise the bowl say 'wassail', people responded with 'drink hail' to encourage imbibing.

Twelfth Night formed the climax to the Yule tide season and brought the festivities to a close, unless you were a farmer when you would not return to the fields until 'Plough  Monday', the first Monday after Twelfth Night.

Twelfth Night

Twelftide, the twelfth day of Yule,

Twelfth Night Cake and festive misrule.

By night fall, all trimmings be down,

The gathering of friends, a night to renown.

Twelfth Night celebrations, now abound,

The lighting of fires, to circle around.

Deck the Wassail bowl, with evergreen,

Receiving the order, of king and queen.

On this night, we drink without stealth,

Old English was hael, to your health.

Drink hail, pass kiss and merry be,

Drink and honour, a wassail to thee.

All drink from the large, wassail bowl,

Festive misrule, all out of control.

Cross dressing and animal guises fool,

What a fine way, to end the Yule.

Copyright Andrew Rea 2007

The twelfth silly dragon

There was a Cockatrice from the east,

That was an unusual beast,

He got up one day,

In the month of May,

And burnt everything up at the Feast.

The eleventh silly dragon

The Cockatrice had to dinner postpone,

Thinking only of goodies he was prone,

A sausage to sizzle,

Some honey to drizzle,

Without food as fuel he couldn't have flown.

The tenth silly dragon

There was a Sea serpent from the west,

That went forth on a great quest,

He was very bold,

But feeling quite cold,

Because in hast he forgot to get dressed.

The ninth silly dragon

The Firedrake got up early from his nest,

To put his strong fiery breath to the test,

He puffed up his lungs,

And stuck out his tongues,

The other dragons were much impressed.