Monthly Archive

Today we celebrated the wassail so it was apples all round - drank apple juice, made apples to stick on a tree, banged instruments to wake the apple tree spirit, played guess the fruit by feeling in a bag, did the story of Mr Peabody’s Apples and played with a parachute. Went outside for the first time (the Quaker Meeting House has a small garden.

Getting other parents to help next week, it’s National Storytelling Week so going to dress up, use puppets etc and make up some stories.

Wassailing refers, among other things, to the practice of singing to trees in apple orchards in cider-producing regions of England. Wassail is an ale-based drink seasoned with spices and honey. It was served from huge bowls, often made of silver or pewter and often passed around the room to be shared - known as the Loving Cup. The Wassail bowl would be passed around with the greeting, ‘Wassail’.

Wassail gets its name from the Old English term “waes hael”, meaning “be well”. It was a Saxon custom that, at the start of each year, the lord of the manor would shout ‘waes hael’. The assembled crowd would reply ‘drinc hael’, meaning ‘drink and be healthy’.

As time went on, the tradition was carried on by people going from door to door, bearing good wishes and a wassail bowl of hot, spiced ale. In return people in the houses gave them drink, money and Christmas fare (special foods eaten during Christmas time e.g. mince pies) and they believed they would receive good luck for the year to come.

The contents of the bowl varied in different parts of the country, but a popular one was known as lambs wool. It consisted of ale, baked apples, sugar, spices, eggs, and cream served with little pieces of bread or toast. It was the bread floating on the top that made it look like lamb’s wool.

Apple tree wassailing is a ceremony which involves drinking to the health of the apple trees.

The Apple trees were sprinkled with wassail to ensure a good crop. Villagers would gather around the apple trees with pots and pans and made a tremendous racket to raise the Sleeping Tree Spirit and to scare off demons.

The biggest and best tree was then selected and cider poured over its roots. Pieces of toast soaked in cider were placed in the forks of branches. The wassail song was sung or chanted as a blessing or charm to bring a good apple harvest the following year.

This custom was especially important during a time when part of a labourer’s wages was paid in apple cider. Landlords needed a good apple crop to attract good workers. Wassailing was meant to keep the tree safe from evil spirits until the next year’s apples appeared.

Thanks to Woodland Junior School in Kent for that info! 

We had our first proper meeting today and although lots of people couldn’t make it, it worked I think. It was quite hard work with everything being new for everyone but everyone left happy. We:

• did some running around / crawling / hopping / bum shuffling to get rid of any excess energy!
• ate biscuits
• had circle time, passing a shell to speak and say our names and favourite things to do
• looked at books on plants and animals, did some drawing and made animals out of quick-drying clay
• played with a silk parachute
• had a story called Parrot Tico Tango who kept stealing his friends’ fruit - with a big soft parrot puppet
• sang a song round the campfire (torches under red tissue paper with sticks on the top and the lights out - looks like embers!)