Wassailing

The Apple Wassail is a winter custom in the cider orchards of South West England. People visit the orchard, sing to the trees, and make a loud noise with drums, pots and cans to frighten away evil spirits. Toast is hung in the branches and cider or apple juice is poured around the roots, and the ceremony is said to bless the trees for a good crop in the coming season.

It is held on Twelfth Night or Old Twelfth Night (about 17 January, after the calendar change of 1752), and some places hold it on other dates through January. Dartmoor Border Morris, formed at Meavy in 2001 and now practising at Walkhampton, performs at wassails across the area, and the Tavy and Tamar Apple Group holds an annual evening that begins in a church hall and moves to an orchard, with Dartmoor Border Morris and the Tavy Tars singing and dancing.

The first recorded mention is at Fordwich in Kent in 1585, when groups of young men went between orchards performing the rite for a reward.