Even if you know the Christmas carol Here we come a Wassailing chances are you haven’t given a second thought to what it’s all about… unless you belong to Chorleywood Orchard and their affiliated Cider Club. When members discovered that the old English custom dating back to Anglo Saxon times has involved cider makers for centuries and is still carried out countrywide they decided to revive the tradition themselves, giving it their own stamp by combining it with a Burns Night Celebration!
“ Our community orchard is a really successful project and our chairman Alison Rubens was keen to generate some community spirit“ says Roger Dyer, “Wassailing involves a celebration of the apple trees by waking them up for spring and encouraging a good harvest for the coming year. We simplified it and focused on a few key elements, toast and cider – the cider-soaked toast is hung on branches to ward away evil spirits and you sprinkle tree roots with cider willing it to bear healthy fruit, tap the tree with sticks then toast its health as you drink from the wassail cup – ‘ Waes Hale ‘ literally means Good Health in Old English. Ideally the cup is bowl sized with a two handles but we had a giant flask of mulled cider and passed round a tankard! It was a crisp, clear starry night and we carried burning torches so there was a great atmosphere. We finished by singing the Wassail song (which I re – wrote), then all piled into one member’s house to warm up and went on to toast Robbie Burns! It was all good fun.”
Hurrah, hurrah in our good Town
The bread shall be white and the liquor brown
And so my fine fellow, I drink to thee
And the very health of each other tree.
Well may it blow, well may much come
Blossom and fruit both apple and plum.
So that every bough and every twig
May bend with a burden both fair and big
May ye bear us and yield us fruit such a store
That the bags and boxes and store run o’er.