wassails
Festive drinking celebrations
Wassails are festive drinking toasts or the spiced beverages served at them, traditionally associated with Christmas and New Year celebrations.
The drink is typically hot cider or ale with spices, sugar, and sometimes roasted apples.
To wassail is to go door-to-door singing carols and offering toasts to neighbors' health: The carolers went wassailing through the village.
Heated bread; glass-raising honor
- revelryNoisy, lively celebration
- festivityCelebratory occasion or mood
- merrimentLighthearted fun together
- carolsFestive religious songs
Twelfth Night · Christmas · merrymaking · cheer · feasting · carousing · jollity · good health
Directly between residences
- singingVocal music-making
- orchardFruit tree plantation
- apple treesFruit-bearing orchard plants
- blessingPrayer seeking divine favor
tradition · Gloucestershire · Somerset · folk custom · procession · lanterns · winter solstice · rural
toast
Heated bread; glass-raising honor
- revelryNoisy, lively celebration
- festivityCelebratory occasion or mood
- merrimentLighthearted fun together
carols · Twelfth Night · Christmas · merrymaking · cheer · feasting · carousing · jollity · good health · blessing
door-to-door
Directly between residences
- singingVocal music-making
- orchardFruit tree plantation
- apple treesFruit-bearing orchard plants
blessing · tradition · Gloucestershire · Somerset · folk custom · procession · lanterns · winter solstice · rural · agricultural
mulled wine
Spiced, heated red drink
mead · grog · posset · lambswool · cloves · nutmeg · cinnamon · ginger · honey · sugar