Folklore: Proper Dress for Wassailing

Subject: Folklore: Proper Dress for Wassailing
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 27 Feb 10 - 03:33 PM

Wondering....
After reading extensivly and intensivly in the area of Wassail I have never come across wassailers dress or costuming being described other than as either well dressed or shabby etc...

I know many Morris folk can not change their clothes :) so when they attend wassails they wear what they have but wondering if there is any justification for it? Should morris folk wish to be accurate that is.
If they dont care - well thats find.

Wassail for twelfth night is different as masque traditions apply and I guess if you wanted to disguise yourself as a morris dancer it would work.

Also absolutely sure that no painted face wassailers have been described and I have seen hundreds of references. Now this would not apply to mummers involved in plays or as christmas oxen or mary lywd
where dress up is essential.....

So far I would think that rustic english clothing would be appropriate probably wellies, etc...of course they will be standing out in the mire on the hard stone.

Or maybe I missed something.
Conrad

Subject: RE: Folklore: Proper Dress for Wassailing
From: Dead Horse
Date: 27 Feb 10 - 04:42 PM

Pondering....
Could it be that there was a question posed here, or maybe not.
Whenever I go out to a wassail I wear sensible dress for a winters eve, bearing in mind that I shall be among my friends who dress according to the occasion.

We usually fire guns up in the air.
But never hit anything.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Proper Dress for Wassailing
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Feb 10 - 05:30 PM

Thermal, fire-retardant and non-hazardous is my recommendation!

Otherwise, the brighter the better, 'normal' dress or costume, what ever you feel appropriate to the surroundings.

Don't dress up as a tree though... things might get "complicated".

LTS

Subject: RE: Folklore: Proper Dress for Wassailing
From: Leadfingers
Date: 27 Feb 10 - 05:46 PM

' Might ' Liz ?? WOOD get complicated !

Subject: RE: Folklore: Proper Dress for Wassailing
From: ClaireBear
Date: 27 Feb 10 - 06:20 PM

In my neck of the world we prefer a deep purple sweatsuit with a big, gold W emblazoned across the breast.

No, actually, that's just a friend's fantasy. We simply wear comfortably warm outdoor togs, preferably with shoes that are easily slipped off when we're invited in.

The morris team do not wear kit; the white wouldn't survive the weather or the long day and, anyway, the dancers would get too cold.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Proper Dress for Wassailing
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Feb 10 - 06:34 PM

Just seems many of facebook videos are dominated by morris kit that I have never seen documented. Costuming if any might be country whatever you want to make that to be.

Conrad

Subject: RE: Folklore: Proper Dress for Wassailing
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Feb 10 - 06:38 PM

not here to sell anything but the proceeds small as they are do go to maintain my web pages of wondrous reference but I do have a wassail shop

http://www.cafepress.com/wassailshop

The Wassail Epicenter Store



Czech it out. Actually I generally re-circulate the proceeds to provide badges for our wassail and bonfire. I have to update the link which i will do soon.

conrad

Subject: RE: Folklore: Proper Dress for Wassailing
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 13 Mar 10 - 10:05 PM

New breakthrough- for the first time I located a reference from 19th century noting that wassailers doing Mary Lwyd in Wales decorated themselves with ribbands and blackface and at least one in womans clothes......still no other references other than mummers often associated with wassailers.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Proper Dress for Wassailing
From: Tradsinger
Date: 14 Mar 10 - 06:31 AM

According to one old wassailer I interviewed in Gloucestershire, he and his mate wore women's clothes and blacked their faces. This was a house-to-house wassail. The photos in the Carpenter collection of Gloucestershire wassailers in about 1930 show that they did not wear anything distinctive - just winter coats and hats. The Bodmin wassailers wear DJs, bow ties and top hats. Don't some West Country wassailers wear smocks?

Tradsinger

Subject: RE: Folklore: Proper Dress for Wassailing
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 14 Mar 10 - 08:01 AM

Yes I think dress up has been going for a while- perhaps part of the revival with the feeling perhaps that when one did folk activities a uniform of sorts was required.

I tend to think that other than twelfth night wassailing and masque style dress that is associated dress was ordinary with the only references being to those whose dress reflected their poverty.

Opinions of wassailer's appearances are polarized. Either they are welcome to behold or terribly aweful.

Often Welsh Mari Lywd participants are dressed formally in black suits with jackets and of course the black hats.

Ordinary dress seems to also make the tradition much more accessible- one less layer of preparation to go through. I also like the overall spirit of innovation which comes through. This is hard to see except in the Mari Lywd traditions where improvised poetry was expected. In other traditions once things get written down they seem to become formalized and set.

Yes in the Carpenter materials they are informal carrying their wassail tree rather than bowl.....except however, for the Christmas Bull tagging along.

Conrad