wassailing

• As traditional and familiar as most any English Christmas carol, the song is among the season's more anachronistic, an evocation of a holiday custom that pretty much puzzles modern celebrants: wassailing. —  Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate
• It didn't take long for wassailing in expectation of recompense to merge with other manifestations of holiday "misrule" that characterized old English Christmas-an inheritance from the ancient Romans. —  Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate
• It doesn't have anything to do with Christmas (or wassail); wassailing is an ancient pagan ritual performed in apple growing parts of the South of England. —  sweasel.com
• As a rule, soon after midnight the feastings were over, but most folks never thought of retiring till they heard the bands of singers in the distance singing the morning hymn, 'Christians, awake A very old custom was that of "wassailing" the fruit trees on Christmas eve, although it obtained on other days, such as New Year's day and Twelfth day. —  A Righte Merrie Christmasse The Story of Christ-Tide
• The wassailing (or "worsling," as it is termed in West Sussex) of the fruit trees is considered a matter of grave importance, and its omission is held to bring ill luck, if not the loss of all the next crop. —  A Righte Merrie Christmasse The Story of Christ-Tide

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