“Wassail! Wassail! All over the town!”: A Christmas Tradition Including A Horse Skull, Carols and Curdled Cream...
If you are lucky enough to have time off this Christmas and you find yourself ideally enjoying the greatest of sins, sloth, perhaps twiddling your thumbs and bored, why not attend a Wassail. These events usually takes place on the ‘Twelfth Night’, the 5th of January or the 17th of January, or ‘Old Twelvey’ if you are a real die hard and still using the date as it appeared in the pre-Gregorian calendar. (Castelow, 2024) Wassailing can be split into roughly two distinct entities amongst many: The Orchard Wassail and The Visiting Wassail. What remains central in both is the wassail bowl or cup, a communal drinking vessel filled with a special wassail concoction. A warm drink formed of mulled ale, curdled cream, roasted apples, eggs, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and sugar. Believe it or not it was considered good luck to drink this mixture which was known to have a frothy top referred to as “The lambs wool”. Yum.
The orchard wassail refers to an annual Saxon (Willey, 1978) tradition of visiting orchards and reciting incantations, singing and generally making raucous noise in the hopes of waking the trees up, scaring away any potential nasty spirits and thanking them for such lovely apples. Travelling from orchard to orchard, banging pots and firing shotguns as they go, the wassailers will pick the best tree in each location before festooning its branches with bread soaked in the wassail bowl as a thank you to the tree spirits. If you do decide to go-a-wassailing, it is very important that it is an apple tree that you decide to honour. It is said that this tradition ceased one year in Dunster when it was found that the men had accidentally wassailed a pear tree. After the faux pas, they did not have the nerve to go out the next year (Palmer & Patten, 1971). As is with most midwinter festivals, the celebration involves the drinking of alcohol - in this case from the Wassail bowl, which would be passed from reveller to reveller, with the toast ‘waes hael!’ (Wigley, 2019) which translates roughly to “Good health”. Wassailing is undoubtedly one of the more popular traditions to remerge as part of the folk revival and one that is not just regulated to the countryside. Wassails can be found in parks and community gardens throughout many cities in the UK and often isn’t just limited to the Twelfth night, taking pace throughout December and January.
“Wait! What’s the second form of wassailing you mentioned?” I can hear you cry. Well, wait no more! The second form of Wassailing, the Visiting Wassail is very similar to a Christmas tradition you might already be familiar with, carolling. The visiting Wassail would have you and your rowdy bunch of wassailing colleagues calling upon the houses of important members of your community, where you would sing them songs and offer riddles in exchange for food, coins or maybe an invitation into the house. The well to do who reciprocate the festive spirit were offered a sip from the wassail bowl and a salutation of “Waes hael!” would be offered in honour of their family. Over time, this practice was slowly eroded, first with Cromwell and his puritanical rule of the 17th century seemingly trying to cancel Christmas. Although remerging during the reformation, Wassailing was once again dealt a blow during the 19th Century with the Victorians rebranding Christmas as a time of class harmony. (Harvester) Festivities were reframed as activities that should take place in one’s home and a cohort of drunk revellers trying to riddle their way into your house caused offense to this idea. It could be said that maybe the upper classes weren’t entirely fond of the tradition. With 17th century scholar John Seldon writing: “wenches do by their wassels at New-year's-tide; they present you with a cup, […] the meaning is, you must give them monies”. These drunken parties often seemed more like armed robbery than a tradition that at its core meant the bestowing of good health on your neighbours.(Tom, 2007). It is with this in mind, that during the 19th century, wassailing gave way to the more gentile and Victorian suited carolling. Just know that if you wanted to get drunk and demand payment of food or coins whilst our carolling, you aren’t being disruptive but instead resurrecting an age-old folk tradition.
A slightly more macabre wassailing tradition takes place in Wales, the Mari Lwyd. Mari, who’s head is made from the skull of a horse, with baubles for eyes and flowing ribbons for mane, is operated by a long pole hidden under the white sheet that acts as her body. Snapping her jaw at passers-by, she leads a procession around the town going from house to house. The terrifying nature of the Mari Lwyd is only exaggerated by the fact that she is sometimes so tall that she can knock upon the second-floor windows (Firestone, 1978). Upon reaching the house and asking for permission to enter, which the occupants then deny, a battle of wits ensues. (Peate, 1935) This exchange of sing song and rhyme goes backwards and forwards and is known as Pwnco, a playful and rude battle of rhyme between the two parties which follows a set of rules and always sees the admittance of Mari Lwyd into the house. A mischievous and playful spirit, mari Lwyd will chase her favourite people and generally act disruptive but to have such an esteemed guest visit will bring you bountiful luck for the rest of the year. Much like the visiting Wassail, food and drink must be shared with your new found guests in exchange for the luck they bestow you Different villages and towns celebrated the tradition at different times of the year with the majority of them seeming to take place between Christmas day and the start of the New Year. (Peate, 1943) The name Mari Lwyd has never been explained, some theories point to it as a pre Christian Celtic traditions and the horses that traverse the underworld that frequent its folklore. Others say it stems from the pregnant mare that was booted from the stable to make room for Mary and Joseph, forced to search the land for a suitable place to give birth to her foal. (Rogers) Although her origins might be murky, one thing can be sure, if you hear knocking and see Mari Lywd tapping to come in, you shouldn’t say no.
So, if you want some variety amongst your festive celebrations this year, why not attend a wassail in one of its many forms. Events like these are lovely ways to meet and interact with members of the community you might not have the opportunity to. I have admittedly only attended several wassails in my life but each one has been an incredibly welcoming and festive experience and one that has remained at the forefront of my mind whilst waiting for the next Christmas season to roll around. Whether it’s Wassailing the biggest and best apple tree or trying to outsmart a floating horses head, I hope you find the opportunity to attend one of these events and bring yourself the best possible luck for the new year.
Written by Angus Cawood
References:
Harvester, H. (no date) A short history of Caroling - Tauny, Tauny Folklore. Available at: https://tauny.org/documents/Caroling_HHarvester.pdf (Accessed: 17 December 2024).
Wassailing! - notes on the songs and traditions. Available at: https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Notes_On_Carols/wassailing.htm (Accessed: 17 December 2024).
Firestone, M. (1978) ‘Christmas mumming and Symbolic Interactionism’, Ethos, 6(2), pp. 92–113. doi:10.1525/eth.1978.6.2.02a00020.
Peate, I.C. (1935) ‘88. A Welsh Wassail-Bowl: With a note on the Mari Lwyd.’, Man, 35, p. 81. doi:10.2307/2789906.
Rogers, J. (no date) The Mari Lwyd, Wales. Available at: https://www.wales.com/about/history-and-heritage/welsh-traditions-myths-and-legends/mari-lwyd (Accessed: 17 December 2024).
Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_Lwyd
