I am currently reading North Woods by Daniel Mason. Is it a brilliant brook that tells the story of our country through the people who live in a particular place in New England, spanning from Puritan times to the present. I want to offer a quote from the book; this quote is in the voice of a character during the pre-Revolutionary years who owns an apple orchard:
“It was a tradition in the old country for young men, on Twelfth Night, to go into the orchards with bowls of wassail, and pour the cider mixture over the tree roots in hope of a good crop. Now, I had long been skeptical of this practice, for was not my Wonder [apple] proof that no such rite was needed? . . . And yet I can recall the day I came upon my [apple] tree, and the cider-y odor of those rotting apples that fizzed beneath my feet. Was this not a wassailing? Might not the apple wassail its neighbor? Might not our rites be but those copied out of Nature? What kind of offering have you left, friend? Might we all not learn to wassail, in spirit, if not with fruit, then with words and deeds?”’
Picture credit: “The Wassail” de Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Glasgow). Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Are you familiar with the traditional carol Here We Come a Wassailing? The chorus includes this wish for family, friends, neighbors, community: “Love and joy come to you, and to you your wassail too.” As we move from the end of one year into a new year, how might we “learn to wassail” with our words and deeds? How might we give and receive nurture? How might we be intentional in our daily actions and interactions so that we are bringing love and joy?
I wish blessings on you, your house, “your kin and kinfolk that dwell both far and near”. I wish you delicious wassail (if that’s your pleasure), time with friends and family, rest, reflection, celebration, contemplation this holiday season. Let us all strive to wassail with words and deeds in 2025.
Cheers!