Wassailing the Orchard

The Apple Farm Orchard at Afton Park Freshwater we Wassail Thee

Wassailing 2012 - is January 14th at 4.00pm for a couple of hours, entry is free we will have some hot food and beverages for sale. Wear warm clothes and bring your singing voice and a metal object to bang (saucepan & spoon etc) or whistle to make a noise with. The Oyster Girls will be dancing, Rob will be blessing the trees and a quartet from Guith will be singing.

Wassailing 2011 - is January 8th at 4.30pm for a couple of hours, entry is free we will have some hot food and beverages for sale. Wear warm clothes and bring your singing voice and a metal object to bang (saucepan & spoon etc) or whistle to make a noise with.

Heavy snow in 2010 meant the event was cancelled

Wassailing 2009

On a bitterly cold and frosty night in 2009, with the stars sparkling overhead in a clear sky, a dedicated group of around 40 people, proceeded down to the orchard to perform an ancient ceremony.

Wassailing is the pagan fertility ceremony and has been celebrated in England since the 1400's, this ancient custom normally takes place on Twelfth Night (5th or 17th January, depending on whether the celebrants prefer to follow the old or new calendar). Intended to begin the process of waking the fruit trees from their winter slumber and to exhort apple trees to fruit well the following season by frightening away any evil spirits, it is the first fertility festival of the folk calendar.

Just before dark all clutching a cup of hot mulled apple juice or cider, Rob Wilson and two wassailing queens blessed the trees and placed toast soaked in cider in the branches for the robin and poured cider onto the roots to ward off evil spirits. Everyone joined in the tree Wassail song. Finally making as much noise as we could muster with large sticks drums, pots, pans and whistles.

Our 30 year old apple trees had a bonus to emerge from winter and to ensure that the next season's crop be bountiful, with several dances from the Oyster Girls and harmonized singing from a quartet who specialise in wassailing songs.

"We Wassail Thee Old Apple Tree"