WASSAILING AND THOMASING: CELEBRATING THE 21ST OF DECEMBER.

May the Solstice and turning of the wheel bring you love, peace and good fortune in the coming year.

Let us welcome the returning sun with hope and joy.

May you never thirst.

- A Wiccan Yuletide Blessing

(Source unknown)

Regarded by some traditions as New Year December 21st 2014 (dates vary from December 20th to December 24th) sees the celebration of Yuletide (from the old Nordic word Yul meaning wheel of fire) otherwise known as the Winter Solstice in the Northern hemisphere, the Summer Solstice in the Southern.

A time when bonfires were lit, when holly, ivy and mistletoe were hung, when children were escorted from house to house with gifts of apples and oranges representing the sun and groups of wassailers (wassail from the old Anglo Saxon 'Waes Hael' meaning Be well/whole/healthy) would visit bearing their Wassail cups and singing loudly of apples and other fruits to entice a good harvest the following year.

3 red apples,

3 oz brown sugar,

2 pints of either brown ale or apple cider,

1/2 a pint of either dry sherry or dry white wine,

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 

1/4 teaspoon lemon peel,

white sugar to taste

orange slices to garnish

Core and heat apples with brown sugar and some of the ale/cider in an oven for 30 minutes,

Pour in a large pan, add cinnamon and lemon peel and shimmer on stove top for 5 minutes,

Add the rest of the alcohol at the last minute so it heats but does not evaporate,

Serve with white sugar to taste and orange slices for decoration if desired.

- Recipe for Yule Wassail

Traditionally the Yule log (harvested from the landowner's land or given as a gift but never bought) once dragged into the house and placed in a fireplace was decorated with seasonal greenery such as holly and ivy, doused in cider or ale and dusted with flour before being set ablaze with a piece of last years log specially saved for this purpose where upon it would blaze throughout the night and left to smoulder for the next twelve days.

Though now celebrated on the 3rd of July traditionally the Feast of St Thomas was celebrated on the 21st of December. A day, popular until Victorian times when it was seen as tantamount to begging, in which the poor of the parish went 'Thomasing' (Mumping or Doleing), visiting wealthier folk asking for food and/or household provisions such as coal and candles to see them through the winter months.

Christmas is coming,

The Goose is getting fat,

Please put a penny in the old man's hat.

If you haven't got a penny,

A ha'penny will do,

And if you haven't got a ha'penny

God bless you.

-Traditional English 'Thomasing' Nursery Rhyme

Typically a time that saw the making of Christmas pies which would be put aside until eaten at Epiphany. It is these Christmas pies made of meat flavoured with fruit that gave rise to today's sweet-mince pie made solely of fruit.

One and a half pounds of underdone roast beef, 

two pounds of beef suet,

one pound of raisins, stoned,

one pound of sultanas, pickled,one and a half pound of apples,

one and a half pound of pears,

one pound of mixed peel,

three quarters of a pound of almonds, blanched and chopped, 

thin peel of two oranges,

thin peel of two lemons.

- Ingredients for Christmas pie 
Agnes Martha Marshall

(1855 - 1905)

Traditionally a time in which people took to hugging trees in the hope of a good harvest the following year. Alcohol, lots of alcohol, was consumed (in parts of Germany the 22nd of Germany is still known as Kotzmorgen, 'Hangover Morning') and it was said that if a unmarried girl was to sleep with her head at the foot of the bed that night she would dream of her future husband.

NB Whilst generally accepted as widely held beliefs details and spellings etc can vary from individual to individual, from tradition to tradition, from country to country.