Next: about 17 Jan 2027
Wassailing
On Old Twelfth Night in English cider counties, orchards are visited with songs, toast and noise to wake the trees and ward off ill luck.
About Wassailing
Wassailing of apple orchards is recorded in the south and west of England, in Somerset, Devon, Herefordshire and Sussex, on Twelfth Night or its old-style date of 17 January. A group visits the orchard, drinks to the trees from a bowl of spiced cider, hangs cider-soaked toast in the branches for the robins, and fires guns or bangs pots to frighten evil spirits. The rite was said to ensure a good crop in the coming season. Some of the surviving accounts are Victorian, and scholars debate how old the custom is. In the last few decades it has been revived and staged in many places, as a community event as much as a ritual.
Also part of it, and being written: Wassail (The toasting custom and the orchard rite.), Twelve Days of Christmas (The season it closes.).
Written by the EveryJaadu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Wassail" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family, and are described as belief and practice. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.