Recently we joined in the local Wassail celebrations.
According to Wikipedia, the word wassail comes from the
Anglo-Saxon greeting Wæs þu hæl, meaning "be thou hale"—i.e., “be in
good health”. The correct response to the greeting is Drinc hæl meaning
"drink and be healthy".
The purpose of orchard-visiting wassailing is to awake the
cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of
fruit in the Autumn
The celebrations started with some song and dance at the
Star in Dorking, with a Mummers play, Morris dancing by local side the Box Hill Bedlam, Isle of Wight Moonshine Border Morris and surrealist folk double act
Huginn & Muninn’s humorous interpretations.
A procession took us to the Dorking West Station where a few
more dances took place as others gathered prior to the torch-lit walk up to the
Dorking Community Orchard, where there were bonfires to warm the outside, and
marshmallows on sticks for the youngsters and mulled cider for the
grownups to warm the insides.
Druidic incantations were performed, and the trees were blessed
with offerings of toast and cider and evil spirits were noisily chased away with
much singing and banging of drums, pots, cans etc.
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