Hope your decorations are down? Twelfth Night has been and gone!

I live in Herefordshire, surrounded by fruit orchards, especially apple orchards. For a while the apple was the symbol of the county and rightly so; the fruit is an important cash crop. I’ve mentioned before that it’s a traditional sort of place and one custom is Wassailing.

Twelfth Night Wassailing takes place about now. Not to be confused with touring houses and singing carols, this tradition is about thanking the apple trees for a crop and wishing all well for another. It had largely died out but is making a comeback.

On or about the 6th January, members of the village process to the apple orchard (often starting from the pub!), sprinkle cider on the ground and hang toast in the branches of the trees. Then they chant to frighten off any evil spirits lurking. Some may bang on pots and pans and generally make as much racket as they can before, sometimes, shots are fired into the air as a final call for renewed fertility.

According to various accounts, the word ‘Wassail’ probably comes from the Anglo-Saxon to mean ‘Be thou hale’ and is sometimes celebrated on the old Twelfth Night, the 17^th January, as it was before the Gregorian calendar was introduced.

The ancient tradition of Wassailing is thriving in the cider growing parts of England, so if you live near an apple orchard and hear sounds of revelry accompanied by gunshot in the dead of night, don’t be alarmed, it’s just Wassailers ensuring a bumper crop of fruit for later this year!

For more information about Herefordshire traditions, try Roy Palmer’s book Herefordshire Folklore published by Logaston Press. Their wonderful site is here:

http://www.logastonpress.co.uk/

And Roy Palmer’s book is here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Herefordshire-Folklore-Roy-Palmer/dp/187382758X/ref=la_B001HQ1RTE_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452179945&sr=1-5

Or, for a truly terrifying interpretation of the Wassailing tradition, read Phil Rickman’s Merrily Watkins thriller The Wine of Angels. Only 99p on Kindle at the moment. Bargain!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wine-Angels-Merrily-Watkins-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B004S7BBOK/ref=la_B000APIPYI_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452180051&sr=1-1

Love,

Georgia x

PS This post first appeared on the blog in 2011 but now the site has been revamped, I thought it worth reviving. I was reminded of the subject by scrolling through the Folklore Thursday page on Twitter. If you’re interested in folklore, myths and legends or just a curious story, it’s well worth looking out for.

https://twitter.com/FolkloreThurs