On Saturday, January 14 The Red Lion pub at Brede invited locals to partake of an ancient tradition – Wassailing. Its origins go back many, many, years and the purpose is to drive away evil spirits from orchards and ensure a good crop of apples later in the year. The ceremonies of each wassail vary from village to village but they generally all have the same core elements.
Ryebellion Drummers started off the evening of merriment with a selection of their drumming pieces and delighted the crowd which had gathered in the garden of the pub. There followed Morris dancing and music from Ragged Phoenix which is a border Morris group. Then a king and queen are chosen from the assembled crowd and crowned. They lead the procession to the apple tree where flaming torches and warm braziers set the scene for the next instalment of the evening.
There the wassailing group, Hastings Howl, performed the ceremony to give thanks, inspire forgiveness and promote healing. Bread was dipped into a cider cup and placed on the tree to encourage the birds to come. Cider was washed over the roots to give the tree renewed strength for the coming year’s growth and a great crop of apples. Whilst this was being done the Sussex Sugar Wassail was sung. Then the wassail incantation was spoken with members of the audience joining in.
Stand fast root, bear well top.
Send us all a howling good crop.
Every twig, apples big.
Every bough, apples enou’
Hatsful, capsful, 3 bushel bags full
And a little heap under the stairs
This incantation was followed by noise-making from the assembled crowd, many with saucepans and wooden spoons. Drummers drummed and people shouted. Sian Hayward organised the event for the second year running and explained her involvement and what got her interested.
“I love old wassail songs – they actually describe what happened when people went ‘a-wassailing’. As a Sussex wassail song says, ‘We’ll cut a toast from off the loaf and set it by the fire. We’ll wassail bees and apple trees until your heart’s desire’. Lovely words. Then as for timing, in a wassail song from the Gower we hear, ‘We know by the moon that we are not too soon, and we know by the stars that we are not too far’. Another from Somerset tells us where; ‘Wassail and wassail all over the town’ and so, living in an urban area – Hastings – I thought it would be great to breathe life into these songs by getting together a group of people to go house-to-house wassailing garden apple trees – and that’s how the Hastings Howl started back in 2005 (a howl is another word for an apple tree wassail). I first learnt the Wassail Chant from John Beeching, twenty years ago at a pub-wassail he ran; now he comes to ours. This year was our second wassail at The Red Lion at Cackle Street. The evening was full of drumming, flaming torches, Border Morris dancing, lively folk music, songs from my group Rattlebag, Now and Then and others, plus a beautiful old apple tree set in the garden of a lovely country pub. Good health to the landlord and landlady. Wassail!
“We’re happy to wassail your trees – contact us on rattlebagsing@gmail.com and see our website”