Another ancient custom of this season which, unlike the burning of the Christmas stock, is not yet wholly obsolete was Wassailing.' This practice, which was formerly observed throughout England generally, is thus described by Chambers.

'The head of the house,' he writes, 'would assemble his family around a bowl of spiced ale, from which he drank their healths, then passed it to the rest that they might drink too. The word that passed among them was the ancient Saxon phrase, Was ha?, that is, "to your health ". Hence this came to be the wassail or wassel bowl. The poorer class of people carried round the neighbourhood a bowl adorned with ribbons, begging for something wherewith to obtain the means of filling it that they, too, might enjoy wassail as well as the rich."
Chambers "Book of Days

In Cornwall the bowl, generally made of wood, was decorated and looped around with furze blossom, flowers, ivy, and ribbons. Armed with this magnificent trophy, the wassailers visited the neighbouring farms and houses of the gentry, before whose doors they struck up the following song: Click here for music and sing along.

"In one or two places in the West Country the wassailers still visit the orchards, sprinkling the trees with cider, to ensure their bearing plentifully in the coming year. Formerly guns were fired off  at such times, in order to scare away malign spirits. At the conclusion of the ceremony, as the song suggests, the wassailcrs were assured of a warm welcome, which generally took the form of a glass of 'shenagrum' and a slice
of the Christmas cake. The latter is still a regular feature of the Christmastide in Cornwall, and there will hardly be found a cottage, however poor, which does not attempt to provide something of the sort at this season for the entertainment of chance visitors"
A.K. Hamilton Jenkins "Cornwall and its People" 1934.1

On New Year's-eve in the villages of East Cornwall, soon after dusk, parties of men, from four to six in a party, carrying a small bowl in their hands, went from house to house begging money to make a feast. They opened the doors without knocking, called out Warsail, and sang:- "These poor jolly Warsail boys Come travelling through the mire." This custom was common one a hundred and fifty years ago, and is still observed in other South-West Counties.

The following is an account by an anonymous writer of a Christmas custom in East Cornwall:-

"In some places the parishioners walk in procession, visiting the principal orchards in the parish. In each orchard one tree is selected, as the representative of the rest; this is saluted with a certain form of words, which have in them the form of an incantation. They then sprinkle the tree with cider, or dash a bowl of cider against it, to ensure its bearing plentifully the ensuing year. In other places the farmers and their servants only assemble on the occasion, and after immersing apples in cider hang them on the apple-trees. They then sprinkle the trees with cider; and after uttering a formal incantation, they dance round it (or rather round them), and return to the farmhouse to conclude these solemn rites with copious draughts of cider.

"In Warleggan, on Christmas-eve, it was customary for some of the household to put in the fire (bank it up), and the rest to take a jar of cider, a bottle, and a gun to the orchard, and put a small bough into the bottle. Then they said:- "Here's to thee, old apple-tree! Hats full, packs full, great bushel-bags full! Hurrah! and fire off the gun." -
(Old Farmer, Mid Cornwall, told to T. Q. Couch, Sept. 1883, W. Antiquary.)

The words chanted in East Cornwall were:- "Health to thee, good apple-tree, Pocket-fulls, hat-fulls, peck-fulls, bushel-bag fulls." An old proverb about these trees runs as follows:- "Blossom in March, for fruit you may search, Blossom in April, eat you will, Blossom in May, eat night and day." "At one time small sugared cakes were laid on the branches. This curious custom has been supposed to be a propitiation of some spirit" -
(Mrs. Damant, Cowes, through Folk-Lore Society.)

The custom of the wassail bowl was not merely one that was experienced when someone came to your door. Washington Irving (1783-1859) who's mother was Cornish ¹, gave this description in his sketch of an English "Christmas Dinner,"

When the cloth was removed, the butler brought in a huge silver vessel of rare and curious workmanship, which he placed before the squire. Its appearance was hailed with acclamation; being the Wassail Bowl, so renowned in Christmas festivity. The contents had been prepared by the squire himself; for it was a beverage in the skilful mixture of which he particularly prided himself: alleging that it was too abtruse and complex for the comprehension of an ordinary servant. It was a potation, indeed, that might well make the heart of a toper leap within him; being composed of the richest and raciest wines, highly spiced and sweetened, with roasted apples bobbing about the surface.*

* The Wassail Bowl was sometimes composed of ale instead of wine; with nutmeg, sugar, toast, ginger, and roasted crabs; in this way the nut-brown beverage is still prepared in some old families, and round the hearths of substantial farmers at Christmas. It is also called Lamb's Wool, and is celebrated by Herrick in his Twelfth Night:

To read a fuller account of the Wassail Tradition go here. You will also find the words for five more Cornish versions of the Wassail song. use your back key to return.

To hear the song sung in Cornish by  Kescana.and taken from their CD "Nadelik" Click here

Federation of Old Cornwall Societies

www.oldcornwall.org