I think it's worth posting a copy of this post here. "Apple Tree Wassail Song" is the song for January 5 in Jon Boden's A Folk Song a Day project.

Thread #29378   Message #371612
Posted By: *#1 PEASANT*
09-Jan-01 - 03:05 PM
Thread Name: The beauty of apple trees...
Subject: RE: The beauty of apple trees...


'Tis the season to wassail the apples to make sure they produce well.
January 17 Old Christmas a primary day for this
To read more go to:
Click for Apple Wassail



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Traditions of Apple Wassail

"In Southern England a...set of customs...was grouped under the name of wassailing. They consisted, in essence, of wishing health to crops and animals much as people passing the wassail bowl wished it to each other. Most are well recorded in the early modern period, and they may quite easily have descended directly from pagan practices, although it is also possible that they developed outwards from the domestic wassail. The most widespread, famous, and enduring concerned fruit trees. It is first mentioned at Fordwich, Kent, in 1585, by which time it was already in part the preserve of groups of young men who went between orchards performing the rite for a reward. Robert Herrick, almost certainly writing about Devon and in the 1630s, spoke of 'wassailing' the fruit-bearing trees in order to assure good yields, and in the 1660s and 1670s a Sussex clergyman gave money to boys who came to 'howl' his orchard (being the enduring local term). John Aubrey, describing West Country customs in the same period, said that on Twelfth Eve men 'go with their wassail-bowl into the orchard and go about the trees to bless them, and put a piece of toast upon the roots, in order to it.'"
-From The Stations of the Sun by Ronald Hutton

Devonshire, England, - Twelfth Night (January 7)
The farmers get their weapons and go to their apple orchard. Selecting the oldest tree, they form a circle and chant:
The men drink cider, make merry, and fire their weapons (charged only with powder) at the tree. They return to the home and are denied entrance no matter what the weather by the women indoors. When one of the men guesses the name of the roast that is being prepared for them, all are let in. The one who guessed the roast is named "King for the Evening" and presides over the party until the wee hours.
- Source= 1851 London Newspaper


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Much information concerning English Apple Wassailing is found in Wild Apples by Henry D. Thoreau (Atlantic Monthly November 1862


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For an extensive Apple Wassailing Page click it here


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The Rhymes of Apple Wassail

Wassail the trees, that they may bear
You many a plum, and many a pear:
For more or less fruits they will bring,
As you do give them wassailing.-
-Robert Herrick (1591-1674) "Ceremonies of Christmas Eve"

The Apple Rhymes

Here's to thee, old apple tree,
Whence thou mayst bud
And whence thou mayst blow!
And whence thou mayst bear apples enow!
Hats full! Caps full!
Bushel--bushel--sacks full,
And my pockets full too! Huzza!
- South Hams of Devon, 1871

Huzza, Huzza, in our good town
The bread shall be white, and the liquor be brown
So here my old fellow I drink to thee
And the very health of each other tree.
Well may ye blow, well may ye bear
Blossom and fruit both apple and pear.
So that every bough and every twig
May bend with a burden both fair and big
May ye bear us and yield us fruit such a store
That the bags and chambers and house run o'er.
- Cornworthy, Devon, 1805

Stand fast root, bear well top
Pray the God send us a howling good crop.
Every twig, apples big.
Every bough, apples now.
-19th century Sussex, Surrey

Apple-tree, apple-tree,
Bear good fruit,
Or down with your top
And up with your root.
-19th century S. Hams.


Bud well, bear well
God send you fare well;
Every sprig and every spray
A bushel of apples next New Year Day.
-19th century Worcestershire
Source: The Stations of the Sun by Ronald Hutton

Short Verses

Blowe, blowe, bear well,
Spring well in April,
Every sprig and every spray
Bear a bushel of apples against
Next New Year's Day
-Painswick in Gloucestershire

Health to thee, good apple tree,
Well to bear pocket fulls, hat fulls,
Peck fulls, bushel bag fulls
-Devon

Hats full! Caps full!
Bushel - bushel - sacks full
And my pockets full too! Huzza!
-1791 The Gentleman's Magazine South Devon

Stand fast root, bear well top
Pray God send us a good howling crop
Every twig, apples big
Every bough, apples enow.
Hats full, caps full, full quarter sacks full
Holla boys holla!
-Sussex, "howling" verse


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Songs

The Apple Tree Wassail

Old apple tree, we'll wassail thee,
And hoping thou wilt bear.
The Lord does know where we shall be
To be merry anither year.
To blow well and to bear well,
And so merry let us be;
Let ev'ry man drink up his cup
And health to the apple tree.

APPLE-TREE WASSAIL II

Lily white lily white lily white pin
Please to come down and let us come in.
Lily-white lily-white lily-white smock
Please to come down and pull back the lock.

FOR IT'S our wassail, jolly wassail;
Joy come to our jolly wassail.
How well they may bloom, how well they may bear,
That we may have apples and cider next year.
Master and mistress, oh are you within?
Please to come down and let us come in.

FOR IT'S our wassail, jolly wassail;
Joy come to our jolly wassail.
How well they may bloom, how well they may bear,
That we may have apples and cider next year.

There was an old farmer that had but one cow
And how to milk her, he didn't know how.
He put his old cow all in his old barn
And a little more liquor won't do us know harm.
Harm, me boys, harm; Harm, me boys, harm;
A little more liquor won't do us know harm.

Lily-white lily-white lily-white pin
Please to come down and let us come in.
Lily-white lily-white lily-white smock
Please to come down and pull back the lock.

FOR IT'S our wassail, jolly wassail;
Joy come to our jolly wassail.
How well they may bloom, how well they may bear,
That we may have apples and cider next year.
FOR IT'S our wassail, jolly wassail;
Joy come to our jolly wassail. -The Watersons?