Love and joy come to you, And to you your wassail too; And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year "Here we come a-wassailing"performed by the U.S. Army Band The tradition of wassailing (alt sp wasselling)[1] falls into two distinct categories: the house-visiting wassail and the orchard-visiting wassail. The house-visiting wassail is the practice of people going door-to-door, singing and offering a drink from the wassail bowl in exchange for gifts; this practice still exists, but has largely been displaced by caroling.[2] The orchard-visiting wassail refers to the ancient custom of visiting orchards in cider-producing regions of England, reciting incantationsand singing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year Wassailing - Wikipedia
The orchards round here are still wassailed. The noise is intended to drive evil spirits away. Cider is poured over the roots to remind the trees what they are to produce. Pieces of bread soaked in cider are put in crevices in the branches as an offering to the birds and lots of local cider is drunk because that's what it's for.
thank you Robert I keep meaning to go to one up that way looks like a lot of fun We do have a few in the home counties that have been going for a few years regards Clive
