Come a-wassailing with us!
Do you like making noise? Being merry? Putting pieces of toast on the branches of apple trees?
Then join us Sunday, January 15 at 4pm, we’ll get witchy, weird, and a little pagan with a Wassail celebration to bless the trees and ask for a good harvest in 2023!
Bring bread, pots, pans, drums or other instruments, warm clothes, and your inner (or actual) child, and meet us at the fire pits for a fun community celebration of the orchard and all they give us. Wake the trees and chase the bad spirits away. Wassail!
Wassailing is an old English practice, with pagan and Norse roots, that involves celebrating the year's apple harvest and anointing the trees with cider to ensure a prosperous apple harvest the following year. Wassailing is a practice that is still done to this day - usually closer to the beginning of January to coincide with the new year and Yuletide.
Enjoy some additional Wassail background and history.
Weather permitting, we will walk with torches and stop at various points of interest in the orchard for readings, poetry, songs, and reflections with the trees. We recommend wearing sturdy boots and warm clothing. This event is free and open to all! We hope to see you there!
Gorgeous sunset photo of our inaugural 2022 Wassail Celebration. Image by Joy Gild.