wassail

In apple-growing regions like Kent and Devonshire, farmers would additionally toast or salute the apple tree and pour wassail over its roots in preparation for a good harvest year.

From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2021

My favorite in the Christmas canon is “Here We Come A-Wassailing,” with its hearty chorus of “Love and joy come to you, / And to you your wassail, too.”

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 18, 2018

The scent of cinnamon and clove permeated the building, as members brewed traditional wassail for the occasion.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 11, 2017

You spoiled them, and they came to expect your Christmas exertions as a tradition that spared them the effort of providing their own ham and wassail bowl.

From Slate ● Dec. 31, 2014

The meats were followed by flaming puddings and bowls of wassail, chestnuts, and apples.

From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli

In January I attend one of Kent’s growing number of wassails, a half-pagan, half-Christian ceremony in which an apple tree is fed a tribute of cider to encourage a good harvest later in the year.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 9, 2020

The fight against evil spirits continues the following month in the orchards of southern England, where Apple wassails, or Apple Howling ceremonies, are common.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2014

Thou shalt have possets, wassails fine, Not made of ale but spiced wine; To make thy maids and self free mirth, All sitting near the glittering hearth.

From The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3) by Bullen, A. H. (Arthur Henry)

I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers, Of April, May, of June, and July-flowers; I sing of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes, Of bride-grooms, brides, and of their bridal-cakes.

From A selection from the lyrical poems of Robert Herrick by Palgrave, Francis Turner

Thou shalt have possets, wassails fine, Not made of ale, but spiced wine; To make thy maids and self free mirth, All sitting near the glitt'ring hearth.

From A selection from the lyrical poems of Robert Herrick by Palgrave, Francis Turner

I wassailed the thing down to its yeasty dregs.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 26, 2016

We wassailed deep into that night and out the other side, and we liked our Otto more than ever.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, May 9, 1917 by Various

In this very place, perhaps upon this very spot, he feasted and wassailed with his warriors, and drained his horn to the future glories of his name.

From Greifenstein by Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)

Class A, 1st, A formal affair … with tennis; A wassailing we will go; Best of the Wurst, New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung. ; 3rd, The Rescuers, Seguin Gazette-Enterprise.

From Washington Times ● Mar. 3, 2019

Peter McKintosh’s set has a sort of Vorticist pizazz, and I liked the sweet assemblage of wassailing mice that suggest the passage of the seasons.

From New York Times ● Jul. 28, 2017

The British tradition of wassailing in exchange for a bowl of hot mulled cider goes back centuries, as does eggnog.

From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2016

This is orchard wassailing, the far older custom of serenading apple trees in winter to wake the sleepy, scrumpy-producing spirits within.

From The Guardian ● Jan. 5, 2013

Give then to the King And Queene wassailing; And though, with ale, ye be whet here, Yet part ye from hence As free from offence As when ye innocent met here.

From A Righte Merrie Christmasse The Story of Christ-Tide by Behrend, Arthur C.