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Christmas Countdown
Here We Come a'Wassailing
Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green;
Here we come a-wandering, so fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you, and to you our wassail, too.
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
We are not daily beggars that beg from door to door;
But we are neighbours' children whom you have seen before.
We have a little purse made of ratching leather skin;
We want a little sixpence to line it well within.
God bless the master of this house, likewise the mistress, too;
And all the little children that round the table go.
Wassailing can be traced back to ancient times, to the Celts and and the Anglo Saxons. There are a number of explanations for the wassail tradition of going from house to house, eating, drinking, socializing and singing.
The first was agricultural. Ancient peoples lived very much at the mercy of the elements and having good weather and excellent crops could easily become a matter of life and death. Over time, they developed many rituals intended to ensure good crops, and wassailing was one of them. They would go from apple tree to apple tree in the winter, saluting and blessing the trees to help ensure a good crop of apples.
Here's a snippet of a song sung to the apple trees handed down through generations:
Here's to thee, old apple tree!
Whence thou mayst bud,
and whence thou mayest blow.
Hats full! Caps full?
Bushel, bushel, sacks full!
And my pockets too! Huzza!
The word 'wassail' comes from the Anglo-Saxon Wes Hal or Ves Heill, meaning "be well, and in good health." Wassailing may be the origin of our modern practice of toasting.
Another story explaining how wassailing started is that an Anglo Saxon woman named Rowen presented Prince Vortigen with a bowl of wine and said "Waes Hael!." After that, the Celtish people in the area took to going door-to-door singing to spread blessings for the next growing season. Each household they visited would offer them wassail, usually ale or cider. They would end up in the apple orchards, bless the apple trees and celebrate.
As you can see from the vintage postcard below, which is from the early 1900s, wassailing was very much alive and well back then. This
postcard says:
Cast dull care away
For here's to Xmas Day
Join the festive bowl
And be a Jolly Soul!
So ves heill to you as you celebrate this holiday season with friends and relatives! Thanks for visiting our Christmas Countdown!
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Recipe for Wassail
From the 1600s
2 or 3 cinnamon sticks
3 blades of mace
4 cloves
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 ginger root
4 apples
4 oz. of sugar
1/2 pint of brown ale
1/2 pint of cider
Core the apples and sprinkle with sugar and water. Bake at 375°F/190°C for 30 minutes, or until tender. Mix ale, cider and spices together. Heat but do not boil. Leave for 30 minutes. Strain and pour over roasted apples. Serve in a punch bowl. Of course if you're planning on saluting more than a few wassailers--and they do tend to travel in packs-- you'll want to increase the recipe accordingly.
Personalized Letters From Santa!
We visited the many sites on the Internet that offer personalized letters from Santa Claus and
finally found one that features vintage images and archival quality paper so that the letter
can be kept as a treasured family momento. The letter from Santa Claus is:
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