A-Wassailing no more?

I'll be honest. I was in two minds whether to Wassail my apple trees this year.

The purpose of Wassailing is to awaken the apple trees from their Winter hibernation and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit next Autumn. But 2022 was a Mast Year (see here) and my Bramley, in particular, produced thousands (not an exaggeration) of apples - most of which I couldn't use or pass on.

So I wasn't particularly keen to ask for another big harvest. 

This is what one day of windfalls looked like.  And this happened every day.

I had to spend over half an hour  gathering them up, binning the rotten or insect-infested ones, and putting the remainder out for my neighbours. I did leave a fair few on the lawn for the birds though - and I was rewarded with visits by flocks of Fieldfares and Redwings.

The problem is that Bramleys are no good for cider or drinking juice. And there are only so many pies, strudels and jars of apple sauce you can eat.

And that was just one tree. I have three.

Wassail comes from the Old English wes hál, meaning 'good health' .There are two main types of Wassail - the Christmastide Wassail and the Orchard Wassail. The Christmas Wassail was a way for the peasantry to ask for gifts from their feudal lords as a form of charitable giving, rather than begging. In Cornwall, where I grew up, there was a nine verse song called Here We Come A-wassailing that people sang as they went door-to-door collecting for charity. It began:

Now Christmas is comin' 

And New Year begin 

Pray open your doors 

And let us come in. 

With our wassail, wassail, 

Wassail, wassail, 

And joy come with our jolly wassail.  

Orchard Wassailing traditionally takes place on Twelfth Night (either January 5th or 6th) or on 'Old Twelvey Night' (January 17th - as it would have been before the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in 1752). But it often takes place any time between Christmas and today - like the Chepstow Wassail I wrote about on the 13th (see here). 

Wassail practices vary from location to location but usually share a few core elements. A Wassail King and Queen lead the song and/or a processional tune played or sung from one orchard to the next. The Wassail Queen will then be lifted up into the boughs of the tree where she will place toast soaked in Wassail from the Clayen Cup as a gift to the tree spirits (and to show off the produce of the fruits from the previous year). Then an incantation (there are many variants) is usually recited, such as: 

Here's to thee, old apple tree, 

That blooms well, bears well. 

Hats full, caps full, 

Three bushel bags full, 

An' all under one tree. 

Hurrah! Hurrah! 

This incantation is followed by noise-making from the assembled crowd and, in some places, people with 12-bores fire a volley through the branches.  However, this has been replaced in many cases with fireworks or cap guns. The crowd then moves onto the next orchard. 

Wassail, incidentally, is a warm mulled cider spiced with orange, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, vanilla pod and cinnamon sticks. And a Clayen Cup or Wassail Bowl is a goblet or bowl - often made from apple wood or sycamore - from which the Wassail is drunk and poured. This is mine:

There are surviving examples of 'puzzle Wassail bowls', with many spouts. As you attempt to drink from one of the spouts, you are drenched from another spout. This one is in the Victoria and Albert Museum:

As the largest cider-producing region in the UK, the West Country hosts many historic annual Wassails, such as Whimple in Devon and Carhampton in Somerset, both on 17th January. Many new, commercial or 'revival' Wassails have also been introduced, such as those in Stoke Gabriel and Sandford, Devon. Clevedon in North Somerset holds an annual wassailing event at the Clevedon Community Orchard, combining the traditional elements of the festival with the entertainment and music of the Bristol Morris Men. 

A folktale from Somerset tells of the Apple Tree Man, the spirit of the oldest apple tree in an orchard  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 appears and reveals to him the location of buried gold.

So did I Wassail my trees yesterday?

Of course I did.

No sightings of the Apple Tree Man so far though.

Bodmin Wassail!

Do you wassail? 

In modern tradition (see also here), Twelfth Night is considered the last day of Christmas and was once one of the big festive celebrations. In my native Cornwall, the town of Bodmin always boasted an excellent 'Visit Wassail', where groups of singers carry a bowl full of a specially made drink - usually mulled cider - and visit homes and businesses to celebrate the occasion.

In other places, people would be wassailing in the orchards - making a sacrifice of bread and cider to the trees to ensure a good harvest come Autumn. I wassailed my own apple trees last year and wrote about it here.

   

Each town or village has its own version of the Wassail song but, in Bodmin, there are actually three songs. The Wassailers spend nearly all of Twelfth Night performing in homes, pubs and other places to raise money for charity. The Bodmin Wassail was first recorded in 1624, meaning that it is one of the oldest celebrations of its kind in Cornwall.

   

Website of the Bodmin Wassailers is here.

Apple Day

Apple Day is a festival celebrating the apple and orchards in general. It's a fairly new festival (actually established during the 1990s) but I heartily support it. It was set up to encourage landowners to maintain their orchards and also to encourage the public to eat the produce from them. Apples are wonderful in so many ways.

Up and down the country today, and over this coming weekend, fruit farms and farm shops as well as historic properties and community orchards will be organising apple and cider tastings. Notable events include the Big Apple in Herefordshire (see here) and Bankside October Plenty in London (see here), where you can meet the Corne Queen and Berry Man. But if they’re too far away just look out for adverts locally as there may be one near you.

I've written about apples previously here and here. It's a fantastic fruit. The Crab Apple is Britain’s only indigenous Apple tree but every invading settler brought in their own local varieties with them and there are hundreds of different kinds of apple growing wild or in people's gardens. 

The Celts associated apples with healing, youth and rebirth. They were sometimes buried in churchyards in an effort to feed the dead and in the Welsh Câd Goddeu (The Battle of the Trees), the Apple is described as the noblest tree of them all, the tree that symbolises poetic immortality.  Apple trees are one of the magical trees that form the Ogham tree alphabet. Its Ogham name is Ceirt or Quert (see here). 

In Great Britain it is customary to wassail the oldest apple tree in the orchard on Twelfth Night (either January 6th or old Twelfth Night on January 17th) to ward off evil spirits and beseech the trees to produce a fine harvest of apples the following Autumn. The oldest tree is named Apple Tree Man, and is the guardian of all the trees in the orchard. The last apple is often left on the tree at harvest time to ensure a good harvest the next year. There are many traditions connected with this rite, including shooting through the branches to ward off evil spirits, and pouring apple cider onto the roots. Toast soaked in apple cider is placed in the branches for the Robins, who embody the spirit of the Apple trees. Celebrants drink warm cider and sing traditional Wassail songs. Wassail probably comes from the Anglo Saxon words, wes hal, meaning good health. 

A Wassail procession to the orchards at Cotehele in Cornwall. Photo: Chris Groves.

The Apple is a member of the Rose family, which includes other magical British Ogham trees, such as Rowan, Hawthorn and Blackthorn. So I decided to mark the day - and the Harvest - by making a sorbet using apples from my own 60 year old Bramley tree and the last bottle of Rosehip syrup that I made with last Autumn's crop.

It's sharp, fruity, and delicious and the ingredients (bar the sugar) were all natural and free.

How do you like them apples, eh?

Christmas Eve, Devil's Bells and Ashen Faggots

Many things are going on today - quite apart from it being Christmas Eve.

In the parish church of Dewsbury, Yorkshire, a team of bell ringers will be Tolling the Devil's Knell. That means ringing the tenor bell known as ‘Black Tom of Soothill’. Starting at around 10.30 pm, the bell-ringers toll the bell once for every year since Christ was born – it takes a while to get through but it is meticulously counted and the final stroke is timed for midnight. Legend has it the practice began in the 13th century when Thomas de Soothill, a local baron, killed a servant boy. As penance he gave a bell to All Saint’s Church and ordered it rung every Christmas to remind him of his crime. After midnight Black Tom is rung once more to remind the Devil of his defeat by the birth of Christ and to protect the town from evil for the coming year.

You can watch all 2015 peals rung in 2015 by clicking here if you're so inclined but here's a shorter video:.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Yorkshire, The Poor Old Hoss of Richmond will be on its rounds. T’Owd ‘Oss (as he is locally known) is a hobby horse with a real horse-skull on a pole. He is accompanied by a group of mummers in huntsmen costumes who sing his special song and bring him back to life with a blast on a hunting horn when he 'dies'. The day begins with a morning get-together of the participants at a local pub and most of the action takes place around the Market Place area, in and out of the pubs and the bank. There is a special session at the Town Hall aimed at children which will hopefully keep the custom alive and kicking for future generations. The custom is believed to have pagan origins, with known records dating back to the Seventeenth Century. In the lead up to Christmas, the group also tour local villages. 

Further south in the West Country we find the Dunster & Axmouth Ashen Faggot. The Ashen Faggot is a large log bound with withies (a flexible willow stem used in basket making and other things) which is burned indoors in the hearth. A sip of alcohol - I highly recommend a warmed home-made sloe gin - is taken as each withy breaks in the flames. The practice still survives in country pubs notably the Lutrell Arms in Dunster, Somerset,  and the Harbour Inn at Axmouth in Devon and in both these cases, the burning normally takes place on Christmas Eve (in some other locations it takes place on January 5th or 17th which are Old Christmas Eve and Old Twelfth Night respectively, if you adhere to the pre-Gregorian calendar). At Dunster their faggot consists of twelve thick sticks bound in a bundle using ash withies and the Dunster Carol is sung while it burns in the vast fireplace. It’s a revived custom dating back to the 1930s but with much older roots. At Axmouth a six-foot-long faggot is constructed in a bundle of hazel twigs. As the faggot burns carol singing and recitations take place. 

And here's the wonderful Shirley Collins singing the Ashen Faggot Wassail:

Happy Christmas Eve!

Burning Bushes and Wandering Stones

New Year's Day has so much superstition attached to it that it would fill a small book. Most of it is to do with ensuring good luck in the year ahead. 

Many people will be First Footing, visiting friends and neighbours and giving gifts. In Yorkshire they call the gift-giver the Lucky Bird that flits from house to house. On the Isle of Man they call them the Quaaltagh. In parts of Scotland they'll be quaffing a drink made from beer, whisky, eggs and sugar in a Het Pint Ceremony. In other places people will be queuing for the Cream of the Well - a drink from the first draw of a natural well or spring. Meanwhile, in various places around the UK, people will be Wassailing and performing Mumming Plays. 

In Putley, just outside Ledbury in Hereford and Worcester, their Wassail takes the form of Burning the Bush. Thirteen bonfires are lit just after Midnight - 12 of them arranged in a circle around a central, larger fire. They are lit using a blazing straw-stuffed hawthorn globe on the end of a long pole which is then thrown on to the central bonfire. While it burns, fresh hawthorn is cut and made into a second sphere which is doused with cider, and later singed in the dying embers of the main fire. The crowd chants 'Owd Ci-der!' nine times - the first two syllables are said at a normal pitch but the last, the '-der', is dropped to a low growl a full octave below the other notes. The luck-bringing globe is then taken away to hang in the kitchen at a local water mill until the next year's ceremony.

   

Wassailing generally takes place around Twelfth Night (5th-6th January) or Old Twelfth Night (17th). Will I be Wassailing my apple trees this year? Watch this space. 

But the oddest New Year's Day tradition that I've come across is the Wandering stone of Quoyboyne. At Birsay near the colourfully named town of Twatt on the Orkney Islands, a large rock known as the Stone of Quoyboyne allegedly nips to the Loch of Boardhouse as the Hogmanay bells ring out and goes for a quick dip. Meanwhile, on the nearby island of Rousay, a stone called Yetnasteen wanders down to Loch Scockness for a 'Ne'er Day drink'. To discourage people from checking the veracity of these stories, it is said that should you stumble upon either stone in mid-wander, you will die on the spot. 

Orkney has some amazing Neolithic stone sites as this video shows:

   

Incidentally, regarding the word 'Twat' as an insult, no one is entirely sure of its origin. It may share a common root with the place name in that it may derive from the Old English word thwāt, meaning a cut or valley, or the Old Norse thveit or þveit, which means a clearing in a wooded area or meadow (from which we also get the 'thwaite' in place names like Bassenthwaite and Thwaites Glacier). 

My favourite story about the word involves the poet Robert Browning who once famously misused the term in his 1841 poem Pippa Passes: 

Then owls and bats 

Cowls and twats 

Monks and nuns in a cloister's moods 

Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry. 

When Frederick J Furnivall wrote to ask Browning what he meant by 'twat', Browning replied that as a youth he had encountered the word in a volume of broadsides and inferred it to be an item of nun's clothing akin to a wimple. 

He must have been mortified to discover the truth. 

Happy New Year!

Oak and Ash and Thorn

Oak, ash and thorn. It's sometimes called the witch's classical fay triad. All three trees had special significance.

Oak represents strength, prosperity, protection, and overall blessings. Ash is the Tree of Life, otherwise known as the World Tree, and represents unity and connectedness. There's a bit of dispute whether 'thorn' relates to Hawthorn or Blackthorn. But, frankly, either is good. Hawthorn represents wisdom, while Blackthorn - like Oak - symbolises protection. That said, Blackthorn also has associations with the darker side of witchery - so-called 'shadow work' and the keeping of secrets. It was not uncommon in past times for people to make up a faggot (a bundle of sticks tied together and used as kindling) of these three woods and to hang it in their houses.

Strength. Unity. Protection. Who wouldn't want that?

So, I decided I'd make a small one for myself and hang it in my office. I've been evil free now for at least three days. 

A Tree Song is a poem from Rudyard Kipling’s book Puck of Pook’s Hill. Peter Bellamy set it to music, retitled it Oak, Ash and Thorn and, in 1970, made it the title track of an album of songs set to Kipling’s poems. Bellamy noted on the original album: 

'Kipling entitled this poem A Tree Song, and it is to be found in the story Weland’s Sword. Both the tale and the song set the mood and pattern for all the stories and poems which follow. The tune is intended to recall those of some of the old wassail and ritual songs.'

A Tree Song 

Of all the trees that grow so fair, 

Old England to adorn, 

Greater are none beneath the Sun, 

Than Oak and Ash and Thorn. 

Sing Oak and Ash and Thorn, good Sirs 

(All of a Midsummer’s morn)! 

Surely we sing of no little thing, 

In Oak and Ash and Thorn! 

Oak of the Clay lived many a day, 

Or ever Aeneas began; 

Ash of the Loam was a lady at home, 

When Brut was an outlaw man; 

Thorn of the Down saw New Troy Town 

(From which was London born); 

Witness hereby the ancientry 

Of Oak and Ash and Thorn! 

Yew that is old in churchyard mould, 

He breedeth a mighty bow; 

Alder for shoes do wise men choose, 

And beech for cups also. 

But when ye have killed, and your bowl is spilled, 

Your shoes are clean outworn, 

Back ye must speed for all that ye need, 

To Oak and Ash and Thorn! 

Ellum she hateth mankind, 

and waiteth 'til every gust be laid, 

To drop a limb on the head of him 

That anyway trusts her shade: 

But whether a lad be sober or sad, 

Or mellow with ale from the horn, 

He’ll take no wrong when he lieth along 

’Neath Oak and Ash and Thorn! 

Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight, 

Or he would call it a sin; 

But—we have been out in the woods all night, 

A-conjuring Summer in! 

And we bring you news by word of mouth

Good news for cattle and corn

Now is the Sun come up from the South, 

With Oak and Ash and Thorn! 

Sing Oak and Ash and Thorn, good Sirs 

(All of a Midsummer’s morn)! 

England shall bide till Judgement Tide, 

By Oak and Ash and Thorn!

And here it is, sung in the pub by the wonderful Fay Hield.

May Parade update - The Tourney Horse

Another new character for the May Parade!

This weekend just gone I created a Tourney Horse.

There are three basic types of Hobby Horse that appear at British folk festivals. The first is the Tourney Horse, which looks like a person riding a small horse. An oval frame is suspended around the waist or shoulders with a skirt or caparison draped over it. These horses often have a carved wooden head with snapping jaws. The Padstow ‘Obby ‘Oss is a very stylised form of Tourney. 

Among the many Tourney Horses regularly performing in the UK are the aforementioned Padstow 'osses, the Minehead Sailors' 'oss and the 'oss that hunts the Earl of Rhone in Coombe Martin, Devon.

They also appear regularly alongside Morris Dancers and at festivals like the Wassail. In fact there was one featured on the most recent episode of the BBC Countryfile TV programme (You can just see it behind presenter Adam).

   

The second type is a Sieve Horse, which is a simpler version of the Tourney and only really known from Lincolnshire. They are made from a farm sieve frame, with head and tail attached, suspended from the performer's shoulders. 

The third type is the Mast Horse which has a head on a pole. This can be a carved head or, as in the case of the Welsh Mari Lwyd, a real horse skull. The jaw is usually hinged and the person carrying the mast wears a costume to disguise them. I've already made one of these and you can see it here.

My Tourney Horse was a fairly easy sculpt to do but the Tourney itself proved to be a little problematic. I started by making a couple of furry trousered legs that would protrude from underneath the caparison.

I then made the caparison by adding a ring of cardboard to the lid of a fast food container. But how to create the illusion of hanging drapery or leather? I decided to cover it in a patchwork of papier mache.

Next, I made the horse head using polymer clay and made a separate jaw. I then added a kind of rope collar and a couple of balsa horsey teeth.

The final step was to sculpt the 'human head' mask in polymer clay, spray the whole thing black and then highlight with gold for a bronze effect.

I'll be honest ... it's not my favourite figure and I'm not altogether happy with it. It may be one that I come back to. 

But, meanwhile, he's another addition to the ever-growing May Parade.

The Indifferent Death of Father Christmas

Here, on the day after St Nicholas's Day, I'm afraid that I have some bad news to share with you.

Father Christmas is dead.

I realise that this will come as a shock to many of you but it's true. As British folklorist and historian Professor Ronald Hutton explains, 'Oh yes, he's dead. He was murdered and replaced over a hundred years ago by a sinister assassin from overseas, and his name ... is Santa Claus.' 

Every year (since my beard turned white, anyway) I get asked to don the red and white suit and sit for photographers so that they can offer family Christmas portraits. And I also do my bit for my community by sitting in a specially constructed grotto at a local primary school and being fed mince pies in return for being nice to kiddies. 

Photo: Studiobambino

It's something I'm delighted to do as it makes so many children happy. It's genuinely humbling when you see the look on their faces and realise that they REALLY believe that you are Santa.

But not Father Christmas. 

The sign on the door says 'Santa's Grotto'. The music playing is Santa Claus is coming to town, or I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus, or Santa Baby. There are no songs in the playlist that mention Father Christmas.

How many of you even say 'Father Christmas' any more? Not many I imagine. Santa has usurped him. 

And no, they are not the same person. 

Father Christmas is quintessentially British while Santa Claus in American (with Dutch roots) and the two characters are very different. 

Let me explain ...

The first recognisable 'Father Christmas' that we know of appeared as 'Sir Christëmas' in a 1610 carol written by Richard Smart, the rector of Plymtree in Devon: 

'Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, 

Who is there that singeth so?’ 

I am here, Sir Christëmas. 

Welcome, my lord Christëmas, 

Welcome to us all, both more and less 

Come near, Nowell!’ 

The character proved to be very popular and was more thoroughly fleshed out by writer Ben Jonson in 1616 when 'Old Christmas' or 'Captaine Christmas' appears in his play Christmas his Masque, together with his children: Misrule, Carol, Mince Pie, Gambol, Post-and-Pan, New Years Gift, Mumming, Wassail, and (bizarrely) Baby Cake. In this particular entertainment, Old Christmas was described as the personification of Yule-tide, the life and soul of the party, and the spirit of conviviality. However, he was not a gift-giver (that bit is important) and he was definitely nothing to do with St Nicholas or children (that bit is also quite important). Yule-tide was for adults.

Of course, the Puritans did their damnedest to get rid of the character as he was associated with fun and frolic and all of the other F words that made Puritans froth at the mouth, but he survived and  enjoyed a huge revival during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Victorian love of Christmas made Father Christmas the ambassador of good cheer, but he still didn't look like the Father Christmas we know today. He was often shown as old and bearded but various images of him from those times have him dressed in furs or tartan or tweed and often in contemporary garb. One image that seems to have stuck in the public imagination was John Leech’s illustration of the Ghost of Christmas Present for Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843) in which a huge Brian Blessed lookalike is seen sitting among piles of food and drink, and wearing a loose-fitting fur-trimmed green gown. 

But then, things start to turn bad for Daddy C ... 

While Father Christmas was wassailing and yule-logging and making merry with the grown-ups, across the sea in America a Dutch Saint called Sinterklaas - AKA St Nicholas, the patron saint of children - was making his presence known. St Nicholas travelled to the new world with Dutch colonists (New York was originally called New Amsterdam) and had a reputation for gift-giving - especially to children on St Nicholas' Eve (December 5th) and on St Nicholas' Day morning (6th). 

Nicholas (280-342) was originally a Greek bishop who was often depicted as wearing long red robes, a bishop's mitre and a long white beard (see where this is going?). He was accompanied by Black Peter (Zwarte Piet), a small dark child or dwarfish Moor who St Nick had rescued. Peter became associated with chimneys and chimney sweeps due to the peasant custom of using soot on the face to impersonate him. This, incidentally, is perhaps why chimneys feature so prominently in modern Santa Claus myth. In some parts of Europe, Sinterklaas was accompanied by a gnome instead, wearing a red or brown outfit. He carried a small fir tree (a sprig of which brings good luck and the return of Spring to a Winter household) and a bag of toys and may have been the template for Santa's elves.

The Dutch tradition of giving presents on St Nicholas' Eve remained popular in New York for many years among the descendants of the settlers. But then, in 1823, along came an academic called Clement Clarke Moore and it was he who finally did for Father Christmas. Although, in fairness, his only real crime was to write a poem. It was called A visit from St Nicholas and it's the one that starts: 

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house, 

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.' 

Moore took the traditions surrounding Sinterklaas but transferred the action to Christmas Eve. He had St Nicholas driving a flying sleigh pulled by reindeer (he also invented the names we know today - except Rudolf who was a later addition). He described his outfit of red trimmed with fur and his big white beard. And, most importantly, he was the first person to make the connection between Christmas and Sinterklaas's propensity for gift-giving to children.  

Moore supposedly wrote the poem for his own children but a friend, the Rev David Butler, was much taken by the piece and arranged to have it published anonymously in the Christmas edition of the Troy New York Sentinel newspaper. The poem was a huge hit and was reprinted many times. The rest, as they say, is history. 

'Santa Claus', as he had now become known, soon caught the eye of marketing people. Here's an 1868 advertisement for sugar plums painted by Lewis Prang for the US Confection Company of New York.

And I'm sure we all know Thomas Nast's famous 1881 image for the Coca-Cola company - a major player in creating the modern image of Santa. 

Eventually, this new Santa Claus character came across the sea to the UK armed, as Professor Hutton puts it, 'with a particularly deadly weapon, that being the child market. One thing that Father Christmas never did was pay particular attention to children. That was Santa's secret weapon'. 

And wasn't it a powerful one? 

Within no time at all, Christmas became the new St Nicholas' night and the fight between the two characters - Father Christmas and Santa Claus - was decisively won by the interloper thanks to public support. Which is no surprise really. How could Santa possibly lose with the weight of the world's children behind him? 

And that was the day that Father Christmas effectively died. 

I still maintain that it's a huge shame. Father Christmas represented the good things about Christmas: being with loved ones, celebration, eating, drinking and making merry. Santa, meanwhile, has become the patron saint of commercialism, greed, excess and parents fighting at toy shops to grab the last few must-have toys - be they Cabbage Patch Dolls, Ninja Turtles, Tracy Islands, Peppa Pigs or Paw Patrol figures (depending on the decade). What was a sensible, family-oriented festival where, for once, the workers of this world could actually relax and chill out, has now become the busiest and most stressful and chaotic fortnight of the year. 

All of which is why every time I hear the name Santa Claus, I sigh a little sigh for the unfortunate, late Father Christmas. 

Happy holidays everyone! 

____________________________________________________________

My thanks to Professor Ronald Hutton and to my old boss, John Lloyd at QI Ltd, for the quotes I've lifted from an episode of BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity on which Ronald was a guest, and I was involved in researching.