Wassail (, ) is a beverage made from hot mulled

cider Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the Fermented drink, fermented Apple juice, juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and Ireland. The United Kingdom has the world's highest ...

, ale, or wine and spices, drunk traditionally as an integral part of

wassailing The tradition of wassailing (also spelled wasselling) falls into two distinct categories: the house-visiting wassail and the orchard-visiting wassail. The house-visiting wassail, which traditionally occurs on the twelfth day of Christmastide ...

, an ancient English

Christmastide Christmastide, also known as Christide, is a season of the liturgical year in most Christianity, Christian churches. For the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church, Anglican Church, Methodist Church and some Orthodox Churches, Christmastide begins ...

and

Yuletide Yule is a winter festival historically observed by the Germanic peoples that was incorporated into Christmas during the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples. In present times adherents of some new religious movements (such as Modern Ge ...

drinking ritual and

salutation A salutation is a greeting used in a Letter (message), letter or other communication. Salutations can be formal or informal. The most common form of salutation in an English letter includes the recipient's given name or title. For each style of ...

either involved in door-to-door charity-giving or used to ensure a good harvest the following year.

Etymology

According to the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'', the word "wassail" originated as a borrowing from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

salutation ''ves heill,'' corresponding to

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''hál wes þú'' or ''wes hál'' – literally meaning 'be in good health' or 'be fortunate'. It was initially used in the sense of 'hail' or 'farewell', without any drinking connotation. The English interjection "" is a

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

of the

etymon A root (also known as a root word or radical) is the core of a word that is irreducible into more meaningful elements. In morphology, a root is a morphologically simple unit which can be left bare or to which a prefix or a suffix can attach. The ...

of the second part of "wassail", and was probably influenced by the Old English phrase. The expression later became part of the drinking formula ''"''wassail ... drinkhail" which, the OED suggests, initially arose in England among the Anglo-Danes, and from there spread to the native population, being considered a specifically

Anglo Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to Ge ...

characteristic by the 12th century. The earliest record is of around 1140, in Geoffrey of Monmouth's telling of the Rowena story, which has ''wes heil ... drinc heil'' (or, in a variant reading, ''was heil''). Later

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

manuscripts have a variety of spellings, including and . The second expression, "drinkhail", may derive either from Old Norse or Old English, again with a variety of spellings including and . The earliest example of the drinking phrases in a specifically English context comes from a manuscript of 1275, preserving a 12th-century text which has . hat friend said to [the otherfriend..., "beloved friend, wassail!"; the other said, "drinkhail!"">he_other.html" ;"title="hat friend said to [the other">hat friend said to [the otherfriend..., "beloved friend, wassail!"; the other said, "drinkhail!" By 1300, the sense had extended from a toast to the drink itself, especially to the spiced ale used in Twelfth Night (holiday), Twelfth-night and Christmas Eve celebrations. By 1598 it was being applied to the custom of drinking healths on those nights. William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's 1603 use of "Keep wassel" in ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

'' i. iv. 10 was the first record of the term's use in a more general sense of "

carousal Drinking culture is the set of traditions, rituals, and social behaviors associated with the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Although alcoholic beverages and social attitudes toward drinking vary around the world, nearly every civilization h ...

" or "revelling".

Preparation

Wassail is a hot, mulled punch often associated with Christmastide, often drunk from a

wassail bowl Wassail (, ) is a beverage made from hot mulled cider, ale, or wine and spices, drunk traditionally as an integral part of wassailing, an ancient English Christmastide and Yuletide drinking ritual and salutation either involved in door-to- ...

. The earliest versions were warmed

mead Mead (), also called honey wine, and hydromel (particularly when low in alcohol content), is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alco ...

into which roasted crab apples were dropped and burst to create a drink called 'lambswool' drunk on

Lammas Lammas (from Old English ''hlāfmæsse'', "loaf-mass"), also known as Loaf Mass Day, is a Christian holiday celebrated in some English-speaking world, English-speaking countries on 1 August. The name originates from the word "loaf" in referenc ...

day, still known in

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's time. Later, the drink evolved to become a mulled cider made with sugar,

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

and

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus '' Myristica''; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg ('' M. fragrans'') is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fru ...

, topped with slices of toast as

sop A sop is a piece of bread or toast that is drenched in liquid and then eaten. In medieval cuisine, sops were very common; they were served with broth, soup, or wine and then picked apart into smaller pieces to soak in the liquid. At elaborate ...

s and drunk from a large

communal bowl A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, storing, or consuming food. The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom, forming a seamless curve ...

. Modern recipes begin with a base of

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

fruit juice Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such ...

or mulled ale, sometimes with

brandy Brandy is a liquor produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume (70–120 US proof) and is typically consumed as an after-dinner digestif. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks. Others are coloured ...

sherry Sherry ( ) is a fortified wine produced from white grapes grown around the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. Sherry is a drink produced in a variety of styles made primarily from the Palomino grape, ranging from light versio ...

added.

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

s or

oranges The orange, also called sweet orange to distinguish it from the bitter orange (''Citrus × aurantium''), is the fruit of a tree in the family Rutaceae. Botanically, this is the hybrid ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'', between the pomelo (''Citrus m ...

are often added to the mix, and some recipes also call for beaten

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

s to be tempered into the drink. Great bowls turned from wood, pottery or

tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force, and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

often had many handles for shared drinking and highly decorated lids; antique examples can still be found in traditional pubs. Hence the first

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...

of the traditional carol

Gloucestershire Wassail The Gloucestershire Wassail, also known as "Wassail! Wassail! All Over the Town", "The Wassailing Bowl" and "Wassail Song" is an English Christmas carol from the county of Gloucestershire in England, dating back to at least the 18th century,Buckla ...

; variations of which were known to have been sung as far back as the 1700s, and possibly earlier: At

Carhampton Carhampton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, to the east of Minehead. Carhampton civil parish stretches from the Bristol Channel coast inland to Exmoor. The parish has a population of 865 (2011 census). History Iron Age occup ...

, near

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and close to the Exmoor National Park. T ...

, the Apple Orchard Wassailing is held on Old Twelfth Night (17 January). The villagers form a circle around the largest apple tree, hang pieces of toast soaked in cider in the branches for the

robin Robin most commonly refers to several species of passerine birds. Robin may also refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), inclu ...

s, who represent the 'good spirits' of the tree. A

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...

is fired overhead to scare away evil spirits, and the group sings the following being the (last verse):

Lamb's wool

"Lamb's wool" or "lambswool" is an early variety of wassail, brewed from ale or mead, baked apples, sugar and various spices. British-Irish antiquarian

Charles Vallancey General Charles Vallancey FRS (6 April 1731 – 8 August 1812) was a British military surveyor sent to Ireland. He remained there and became an authority on Irish antiquities. Some of his theories would be rejected today, but his drawings, f ...

proposed that the term "lambswool" is a

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

of the name of a pagan Irish festival, ''"Lamas Ubhal"'', during which a similar drink was had. Alternatively, the name may derive from the drink's similar appearance to the wool of lambs. Ale is occasionally replaced by

ginger ale Ginger ale is a carbonated soft drink flavoured with ginger. It is consumed on its own or used as a mixer, often with spirit-based drinks. There are two main types of ginger ale. The golden style is credited to the Irish doctor Thomas Joseph ...

for children, especially around

Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...

and New Year.

Culture

Wassailing

In the cider-producing counties in the South West of England (primarily Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire) or South East England (Kent, Sussex, Essex, and Suffolk), as well as Jersey,

refers to a traditional ceremony that involves singing and drinking to the health of trees on

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night, or What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Viola an ...

in the hopes that they might better thrive. In the context of Christian Christmas celebrations, wassailing involves pronouncing a

blessing In religion, a blessing (also used to refer to bestowing of such) is the impartation of something with doctrines of grace, grace, Sacred, holiness, spiritual Redemption (theology), redemption, or Will of God, divine will. Etymology and Germani ...

on a tree so that it will bear fruit, often through the singing of a hymn. The purpose of wassailing is to awaken the cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit in the Autumn. The ceremonies of each wassail vary from village to village but they generally all have the same core elements. In

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...

today, the Ashburton and Moorland Mission Community gathers in the barn at Newcombe Farm to sing Wassailing songs and pray for God's blessing on the New Year. A folktale from Somerset reflecting this custom tells of the

Apple Tree Man In English folklore, the Apple Tree Man is the name given to the spirit of the oldest apple tree in an orchard,Bane, Theresa (2013). ''Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology''. McFarland & Co. p. 33. . and in whom the fertility of ...

, the spirit of the oldest apple tree in an orchard, and in whom the fertility of the orchard is thought to reside. In the tale a man offers his last mug of mulled cider to the trees in his orchard and is rewarded by the Apple Tree Man who reveals to him the location of buried gold.

Popular culture

Modern music

British folk rock band

Steeleye Span Steeleye Span are a British folk rock band formed in 1969 in England by Fairport Convention bass player Ashley Hutchings and established London folk club duo Tim Hart and Maddy Prior. The band were part of the 1970s British folk revival, ...

opened their third album ''

Ten Man Mop, or Mr. Reservoir Butler Rides Again ''Ten Man Mop or Mr. Reservoir Butler Rides Again'' is the third album by Steeleye Span, recorded in September 1971. It was issued on the short-lived Pegasus label, and then the Mooncrest label, also in 1971 (Crest 9). It was not initially issu ...

'' (1971) with an extended, minor-key version of "

Gower Wassail The Gower Wassail is a wassail song from Gower in Wales. Wassailing is a midwinter tradition wherein either orchards or households are blessed by guisers, which came to Wales through exposure to English custom. The song is printed in A.L. Lloyd ...

", Tim Hart singing the traditional verses and the others joining the chorus. The British rock band Blur released a song titled "The Wassailing Song", with each member taking a verse. The release was limited to 500 7-inch pressings, given out at a concert in 1992. The version of "The Wassailing Song" performed by Blur was later adapted in a recording by The Grizzly Folk, who have stated that the arrangement bears a close resemblance to the "Gloucestershire Wassail". In her song "Oh England My Lionheart", on the 1978 album '' Lionheart'',

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer. Bush began writing songs at age 11. She was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped produce a demo tape. In 1978, at the ...

sings, "Give me one wish, and I'd be wassailing in the orchard, my English rose." The alternative rock band

Half Man Half Biscuit Half Man Half Biscuit are an English rock band, formed in 1984 in Birkenhead, Merseyside. Known for their satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs, the band comprises lead singer and guitarist Nigel Blackwell, bassist and singer Neil Cr ...

from Tranmere, England, included a song named "Uffington Wassail" on their 2000 album ''Trouble over Bridgwater''. With its references to the Israeli Eurovision contestant

Dana International Sharon Cohen (; born 2 February 1969), professionally known as Dana International (), is an Israeli Pop music, pop singer. She has released eight albums and three additional compilation albums. She was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest ...

, the

Sealed Knot The Sealed Knot was a secret Royalist association which plotted for the Restoration of the monarchy during the English Interregnum. The group was commissioned by King Charles II between November 1653 and February 1654 from his exile in Paris f ...

English Civil War re-enactment society, and also to the skier

Vreni Schneider Verena "Vreni" Schneider (born 26 November 1964) is a retired ski racer from Switzerland. She is the most successful alpine ski racer of her country, the fourth most successful female ski racer ever (after Lindsey Vonn, Annemarie Moser-Pröll a ...

, the meaning of the song's title in this context is a little obscure. In 2013 Folk Rock musician Wojtek Godzisz created an arrangement of the traditional Gloucestershire Wassail words with original music for the Pentacle Drummers' first Annual Wassail festival (2013), called "Wassail". For the Pentacle Drummers' second Wassail festival (2014), the pagan rock band Roxircle also wrote a Wassail song especially for the event called "Wassail (Give Thanks to the Earth)". The Pentacle Drummers encourage their headline acts to write a song centered around wassailing, a way to keep the tradition alive. The English progressive rock band

Big Big Train Big Big Train are an English progressive rock band formed in Bournemouth in 1990. The current line-up includes band founder Gregory Spawton (bass, guitars and keyboards), along with Nick D'Virgilio (drums, vocals, guitars and keyboards), Rikar ...

released an EP entitled "Wassail" in 2015, named for the title track.

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

-based folk singer

Kate Rusby Kate Anna Rusby (born 4 December 1973) is an English folk singer-songwriter from Penistone, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Sometimes called the "Barnsley Nightingale", she has headlined various British folk festivals, and is one of the be ...

included the track "Cornish Wassail" on her 2015 album, ''

The Frost Is All Over ''The Frost Is All Over'' is the third Christmas album by English folk musician Kate Rusby, released on 27 November 2015 on Pure Records. Similar to Rusby's previous Christmas releases, ''Sweet Bells'' (2008) and ''While Mortals Sleep (album), Wh ...

''.

Television

Wassail was mentioned in the television show ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. It then ...

''. Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo ask Mike Nelson to provide some. When asked to explain further what exactly wassail is, they admit to having no idea. However, they offer a guess that it might be an "anti-inflammatory". Upon actually getting some, they describe it as "skunky", discovering it to be a 500-year-old batch. It was mentioned and explained to

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian, entertainer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwi ...

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

in a special episode of the ''Frank Sinatra Show'' entitled "Happy Holidays with Bing and Frank" released 20 December 1957. In 2004, the alternative Christmas message was presented by ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'' who close out with a cup of "traditional British wassail". When the director cuts, they spit it out in disgust, with Bart remarking that it tasted "like hurl". Wassail was featured on the BBC Two special ''Oz and Hugh Drink to Christmas'', aired in December 2009.

Oz Clarke Robert Owen Clarke (born 1949), known as Oz Clarke, is a British wine writer, actor, television presenter and broadcaster. Early life Clarke's parents were a chest physician and a nursing sister. He is of Irish descent and was brought up Roma ...

and

Hugh Dennis Peter Hugh Dennis (born 13 February 1962) is an English comedian, presenter, actor, Impressionist (entertainment), impressionist and writer. He was a panellist in every episode of the comedy show ''Mock the Week'' (2005–2022) and is one half ...

sampled the drink and the wassailing party in Southwest England as part of their challenge to find Britain's best Christmas drinks. During the episode "We Two Kings" on the NBC sitcom ''

Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey (screenwriter), Peter Casey, and David Lee (scr ...

'', the title character's brother Niles asks to borrow his wassail bowl; when Frasier's father Martin asks why they can't just use a punch bowl, Niles retorts, "Then it wouldn't be Wassail then would it?" In response, Martin looks up 'wassail' in the dictionary, defined as 'a Christmas punch'. In the ''

Good Eats ''Good Eats'' is an American television cooking show, created and hosted by Alton Brown, which aired in North America on Food Network and later Cooking Channel. Likened to television science educators Mr. Wizard and Bill Nye, Brown explores the ...

'' holiday special episode "The Night Before Good Eats",

Alton Brown Alton Crawford Brown Jr. (born July 30, 1962) is an American television personality, food show presenter, food scientist, author, voice actor, and cinematographer. He is the creator and host of the Food Network television show '' Good Eats'' th ...

is given a wassail recipe by

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...

which he then must make to appease a mob of angry carolers. In Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration, which originally aired December 21, 1987, the main characters of the special Rex and Herb talk about the term "wassail" regarding a specific Christmas carol, which is comically mis-sung by varying groups that show up throughout the show.

References

Bibliography

* Bladey, Conrad Jay (2002). ''Do the Wassail: A Short Guide to Wassail, Songs, Customs, Recipes and Traditions: How to Have a Fine Geegaw of a Wassail!'', Hutman Productions, . * Gayre, Robert (1948). ''Wassail! In Mazers of Mead: an account of mead, metheglin, sack and other ancient liquors, and of the mazer cups out of which they were drunk, with some comment upon the drinking customs of our forebears'', Phillimore & Co. Ltd., London.

External links

Authentic Lambswool Recipe

Making a wassail bowl
* {{Authority control Mixed drinks Christmas food Drinking culture Hot drinks Cider