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

If you'd like to prod us on getting a pronunciation for this word, sign in (or sign up) and let us know.
Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year
Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed
We are still working on calculating this word's frequency.
Recently looked upbrb · imperial · tableside · Quaver · successive |
Recent Favoritespygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms |
Recent PronunciationsDer dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich |