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From this wassail-song it may be gathered that the persons visited were expected to contribute to the wassail-bowl. Another example of a wassailing song begins thus:—
Here we come a-wassailing Among the leaves so green; Here we come a wandering, So fair to be seen.
Chorus—
Love and joy come to you, And to your wassail too, And God send you a happy new year—new year; And God send you a happy new year; Our wassail cup is made of the rosemary tree, So is your beer of the best barley.
A quaint custom, doubtless a survivor from pagan times, was wassailing the fruit trees with a view to a productive crop in the coming year. In some places the trees were wassailed on New Year’s Eve, in others on Christmas Eve. The pretty superstition has been commemorated by Herrick in the lines:—
Wassaile the trees, that they may beare You many a plum and many a peare; For more or lesse fruits they will bring, As you do give them wassailing.
In Devonshire the eve of the Epiphany was devoted to this custom, and in that apple-bearing country, cider was the wassail used on the occasion, and the apple tree the chief recipient of the country folks’ good wishes. The wassailers, with good supply of their favourite beverage, would proceed to some gnarled and crooked, but productive apple tree, and there, forming a circle about his ancient trunk, would drink his health with some such incantation as this:—
Here’s to thee, old apple tree, Whence thou mayest bud, and whence thou mayest blow, And whence thou mayst bear apples enow. Hats full, caps full, Bushel, bushel, sacks full, And my pockets full too; hurrah!
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