At the heart of a wassail is a good old sing song – a carol, a wassail song or something more like a hymn. Many of them are regional, a lot of them go back to the nineteenth century and even earlier.  So here are  the three we will be singing on 10 January (we meet at 2:30pm at the orchard.) If you can play a (portable, acoustic) instrument, by all means bring it along and join in. Personally I can’t read music, and I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, but that’s not going to stop me. The  purpose of all the singing is to make enough noise to scare evil spirits from the orchard, so I should be fine!

I am very excited by the plans for the Wassail – it’s become a feature of the orchard year, something to get us out in the cold (and sometimes wet) and remind ourself that, eventually, spring blossoms must come.
This time we are looking into bringing a bit more of the wild wood into the orchard, in the person of the Holly King and the Ivy Queen. The story is a familiar one, another way of telling the endless narrative of the changing seasons – every year, after the harvest, the Holly King takes on the Oak King in single, mortal combat. Of course, the Holly King must win, but the Oak King will rise again in the summer. The winter cold belongs to the Holly King, and to the Ivy, his Queen. Together they represent life in the depths of winter, irrepressible greenery. Remember the carol “Of all the trees that are in the wood, the Holly wears the crown.”
So – be greenwood royalty for the day – come to our Wassail as a King or Queen and join in the revelry. There will be music, singing and dancing. You can signify your status with a few leaves, a mask, green clothing – or you can go full-on, like this marvellous Holly King from the performance company ‘The Lion’s Part’. Just mind those prickles….

Holly King from Bankside Wassail

Wassailling details: Meet at Trumpington Orchard Sunday 10th January at 2:30pm. Apart from costumes, wrap up warm, and bring a torch. The event is free but donations are appreciated. Be prepared to sing!

Jaqueline Douglas has sent us some more photos from this year’s Wassail – thanks very much Jacqueline they are great. Hopefully with all this attention the trees will produce a bumper crop, and at the very least we must have chased away any lurking ‘evil spirits’, harmful bugs and any other nasties from the orchard.
And here are some more – from Axel. Thanks so much for sharing these lovely images.

This year we had Storyteller, Malcolm Busby at our wassail, enthralling the audience with the traditional tale of the ‘Apple Tree Man’, who was believed to live in Herefordshire orchards, but, who knows, maybe he will move over to East Anglia, with all this wassailing to warm him. Malcolm really looked the part, dressed all in green. You can contact Malcolm on storyteller@malcolmbusby.co.uk if you’d like to hire him.

Trumpington Community Orchard  is proud to be a local, community project, and that was certainly evident at the wassail. So many thanks to all those who helped out, including Dave Osbaldeson, who performed on his cornet, Julia, who sang, Liz who put posters all around the villages, and Susanna and Ceri who did everything else. And thanks to everyone who turned up, sang, danced and took photos. Was Hael (Good Health) to you all.

It’s nearly here! Not long now! No, I am not talking about the Winter Solstice, or even Christmas Day, but our Wonderful Wassail. We have set the date for Sunday 18 January 2015. Come to the orchard in time for a 3pm start. If you are a musician, bring your instrument and join in the wassailing songs. (Um, unless your instrument requires electricity – we don’t have that). If you are, like me, more of a noise maker than a musician, bring something noisy – a wooden spoon and a saucepan is quite traditional. (Firearms are very traditional at wassails, but don’t bring them!)

Now if you’ve patiently read this far, wondering what on earth a Wassail might be, I will explain. A wassail has been a drinking toast, a carol, a sort of a communal begging exercise and a bowl of hot spiced ale. But for centuries it has been a celebration of apple trees, a ceremony to bless them and encourage them to bear fruit. During the Protestant Reformation it was even made illegal, but it carried on regardless. We grow heritage varieties of apple trees in this orchard, so we felt it was only fitting to revive the wassailing tradition.

When you come as a guest to our Wassail, you will be singing, making a noise and dancing from tree to tree. We encourage you to dress the trees with ribbons, ornaments and safe lights. There will be mulled apple juice for you to drink, and to pour around the trees!

We usually gather around the oldest and largest tree to sing a wassail carol and recite this poem:
Here’s to thee, old apple tree,
Whence thou mayst bud
And whence thou mayst blow!
And whence thou mayst bear apples enow!
Hats full! Caps full!
Bushel—bushel—sacks full,
And my pockets full too – Hurrah!

Come one, come all. We hope to see you there.

PRACTICAL DETAILS
Wear warm clothes and welly boots. Please park considerately on nearby residential streets. Bring a torch. We do not have any toilet facilities on site or nearby. The event is free, but donations are very welcome.

So, the wassail was celebrated with noise, song, lights, decorated trees and mulled apple juice. I am assuming we can sit back and expect a bumper crop of apples as a result. This was the first year our wassail has been accompanied by the erm… robust sound of a wheelbarrow orchestra, but I think they will become a feature. Who knows, given time, a wheelbarrow orchestra might become an essential part of the wassailing custom across the land. And then there was a chap dressed as a penguin. Again, not something I’ve come across in my researches of wassailing in times gone by, but he certainly added to the fun. If you have any more photos we would love to see them – send them to us by email or share them on our Facebook page. Photos on this post taken by Marina Velez.

“Our wassel we do fill
With apples and with spice,
Then grant us your good will
To taste here once or twice
Of our good wassel.”

Everyone is welcome to our Wassail, a traditional ceremony to celebrate the apple trees and encourage them to bear a good crop in the year to come. There will be a bit of traditional dancing, some hearty singing of wassail songs, and a cup or two of mulled cider (or apple juice) to keep out the cold.

The orchard will be decorated with lights, ribbons and anything else we can lay our hands on, and we will celebrate apple trees, traditional orchards and the Old Twelfth Night all in one go.

Adults and children very welcome – wrap up warm, bring a torch or a lantern, a musical instrument or something to make a noise with, and a ribbon or anything you like to decorate the trees.

For further updates and snippets about the wassail tradition, please like our Facebook page.