[Hellsgate] Yule Traditions

[Erwin Simmons]

Wassailing Away

/Here we come a-wassailing
among the leaves so green
Here we come a-dancing
so fair to be seen!
Love and Joy come to you
and to you your wassail, too!
And God rest you and bring you a Happy New Year
And God bring you a Happy New Year!/

Like many lasting customs, wassailing is associated with an ancient 
legend. A beautiful Saxon princess named Rowena offered Prince Vortigen 
a bowl of wine while toasting him with the phrase, "Waes hael," which is 
an Anglo-Saxon phrase meaning "good health."

In Saxon times you would have said "/Waes hael,/" not "Waaassup," to 
greet or say goodbye to somebody; it literally meant, "be in good 
health." By the 12th century, "/Waes hael/" had become the salutation 
one offered as a toast, to which the standard reply was, "/drinc hail/", 
"drink to your good health." ("/Hail/" is an older form of our modern 
word "hale," meaning "health or well-being" and is closely related to 
our word "hail" meaning "to salute, greet, or welcome.") Eventually, the 
word came to be associated with the alcoholic beverage used for 
toasting, especially the spiced ale or mulled cider that was drunk on 
Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night.

If you are having a traditional holiday party and want to incorporate 
this custom, here is the old way to share wassail. While everyone is 
gathered, shout "Wassail!" before sipping from a large, festively 
decorated cup. Then pass the cup to your neighbor. That person replies 
"Drinkhail," to you and takes a sip. He shouts "Wassail!" to the next 
person, and passes the cup along, giving a kiss to the recipient who 
says, "Drinkhail!" Though pre-dating Christianity, this kind of cup 
sharing custom later became known as "the loving cup" in Christian 
circles. Unlike the church custom, traditional wassail toasting could 
get very rowdy and flirty. If you don't wish to drink from the communal 
cup when offered, you may drink from your own cup and pass the wassail 
cup with a kiss. If you don't want to be kissed on the mouth, turn your 
cheek or offer your hand.

The kissing tradition known as "Cloven fruit" probably originated from 
the wassail bowl fruits which were studded with cloves. In this game 
someone starts by inserting cloves into a lemon, orange, apple, or pear. 
Then he offers a cloven fruit to a woman he fancies. If she accepts, she 
is indicating her willingness to be kissed. If she pulls out a clove 
with her fingers, she wants to be kissed on the hand. If she pulls one 
out with her teeth, she wants to be kissed on her lips. After she 
receives her kiss she is free to offer the cloven fruit to anyone other 
that one who offered it to her.

Wassail is also a tradition of blessing the crops especially 
fruit-bearing trees. Wassailers would gather after dark in the orchard 
and choose the most imposing tree to represent the whole orchard. A 
young lad would scale the tree and sit in the branches to represent the 
spirit of the tree. He would be offered gifts of bread, cheese, and 
cider. Then wassailers sang orchard blessing songs, put bread soaked in 
cider in the crook of the tree trunk, and poured wassail on the roots of 
the tree. This would be followed with bells, gunfire, horn-blowing, and 
other noise to frighten away malevolent spirits and awaken the trees 
from winter slumber. In Sussex this was called "howling" the orchard.

Another wassail tradition sounds like "Trick or Treat" for grown ups and 
calls for a group of caroling revelers to carry a pitcher or bowl, 
festooned with ribbons, from house to house, where they sing and offer 
the homeowner a cup. At each home the revelers are treated with a refill 
of their the vessel. This hodgepodge cocktail of varied ingredients may 
be the reason there is such a diversity of wassail recipes and the 
origin of frat parties. Here are three Wassail recipes based on cider, 
ale, rum, and wine for your holiday fare!

...Wassail Recipes on Renstore.com 
<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0018HNXpnAyM-d-eyPXOyE4wKOGYKvXUUjeXKNT4u7OQ5qcLyo0Z04ZdRqXa7jubn3nS8TkhnLsf_TMJQxnRYPVTUpolSx85aLn7AnB6sOwWSAW23IniCLADOvI2Ers953K5g5IdXP72qyNr1eAPhPiOWCZXOmuRuCremAlvpcp367crN4a93FkjA==>