WASSAILING

The word "wassail" is thought to come from the Anglo Saxon "wes hal" which means "be healthy". The Anglo-Saxons used the phrase as an everyday greeting. Węs is a form of the verb "to be" . Hal is the ancestor of the modern English words whole and hale. Thus, węs hal literally meant "Be healthy!".

The Vikings who later settled in Northern England used a variant of the same phrase "Ves heill!". Since the Anglo-Saxons and Norse shared a custom of welcoming guests by presenting them with a horn of ale, a cup of mead, or goblet of wine, the greeting evolved into a toast.

The phrase eventually evolved into the single word that we know today as wassail. The use of wassailing to mean "caroling" very likely descended from the custom of singing songs while drinking from the wassail bowl during the Christmas holidays.

Wassailing takes place on Twelth Night (January 7th) and begins with the eating of hot cakes and the drinking of cider or a brew of cider, brandy, ale and spices drunk hot from a "wassail bowl". This is followed by a visit to an apple orchard, where the apple trees are wassailed to insure a fine crop of cider apples in the summer. A cake or some other food gift is placed at the foot of the tree, and splashed with cider. Then the revelers shoot among the branches to frighten off evil spirits, pots and pans are banged and a special wassail song is sung.

The wassail procession eventually left the orchards and became a strolling Christmas party with caroling, visiting different houses and being invited in for punch.