Wassail your way through January

Where to go and when to join in this ancient tradition in Herefordshire.

When the New Year celebrations are over, Herefordshire’s cidermakers have another unique seasonal tradition up their sleeves; Wassailing!

As the UK’s biggest cider producing region, generating over half of the country’s 700 million litres of annual cider, and home to two of the biggest cider maker in the world, Bulmers, these events are particularly prevalent in Herefordshire.

Wassailing is the ancient tradition of blessing the orchards, the apple and pear trees, with singing and dancing by the light of burning torches to encourage fruitfulness and bounty in the year ahead. The word itself originates from “waes hael”, meaning ‘be healthy’ in both Old English and Old Norse.

Traditionally a Wassail is held on Twelfth night; the evening of 5^th January, though some celebrate on ‘Old Twelvey Night’ on 17^th January, and even in between.

This Anglo-Saxon custom is said to date back many centuries and has evolved to be a real family event in those dark January days. Some say it was the original version of carol singing where people door knocked houses, accompanied by a large wooden wassail bowl. Each region in England had its own traditional ‘wassailing songs’, with the universal theme: to bid good health to neighbours, friends, ‘kin and kinsfolk,’ and all the farm animals, horses, dogs, and apple trees within the village. In the spirit of sharing, all who put something into the communal bowl will draw something positive out when they drink their draft of it. A toast of Wassail followed to wish all the best for a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year!

Today, Wassailing celebrations vary, but typically involve a lively, torch-lit procession to the orchard, where revellers gather round the biggest tree to sing and create lots of noise to ward off bad spirits. Often a wassail bowl, filled with warm spiced cider, perry or ale, is shared among the procession and poured on the tree roots. A ‘gift’ is made by the wassail King & Queen (usually children) to the biggest tree, when they are hoisted into the boughs to place toast soaked in wassail (the cider mix). The bread is said to keep the birds alive during winter so that they will eat the bugs and keep the trees healthy in spring.

Gathering around a lit fire in the orchard, which represents ‘renewal’, not to mention some welcome warmth for participants in cold January, you are encouraged to chant an invocation like the one below.

Leading the noise and throng, it has become usual for Morris dancers to be integral to a Wassail and they certainly add appropriate entertainment and enthusiasm. They may even do some Mumming or Mummers; a form of play or performance to enact a story, and they will certainly treat you to their lively dance and the spectacle of their costumes.

So pull on your woollies and your wellies and head for one of the area’s Wassailing evenings for an experience like no other. Find a selection below.