We wassailed on Sunday January 10th 2016.
Family Wassail: 1.15pm – 4pm, start at Vestry House Museum
Wassail singing in parts: 1.45pm-8pm, start at Vestry House Museum
Come and listen: 3pm Vestry House Museum; 4.45pm Nags Head; 5.30pm Froth & Rind; 6pm Village; 6.45pm Eastfield Road, EMQ Residents Association; 7.30pm Ye Olde Rose & Crown; 7.45pm Walthamstow Folk Club
2016’s theme was the Mari Lwyd, the wassailing tradition from South Wales. The Family Wassail made a “hobby horse”, and will carried it around the village before handing it over to the adults to take it further afield. The tradition is that the wassailers would visit their neighbours and insult them, in verse (and of course, in Welsh) and the neighbours would insult them back, also in verse. Once this competition had run its course, the neighbours would let the wassailers in and give them good things to eat and drink, and the wassailers would wish them all the best for the coming year. So we’ll be working hard for our refreshment this year!
Both wassails start at Vestry House Museum, and we’ll be joining together for the first time, at 3pm in the garden of the Museum to bless the mature apple trees. After that the Family Wassail will visit a local home and Wingfield Park, and the “grown up” wassail will continue learning songs in parts, ready for an evening of singing at the Nags Head, BEE17, Froth&Rind, the Village Pub, Market East Quarter Residents Association, and the Rose and Crown on Hoe Street.
Walthamstow Wassail 