After the darkness of the Winter,  it’s time to wake up the trees, it’s time for spring to stir. It’s an old Anglo Saxon tradition of waking up the trees with song, and noise. Tapping the trees with sticks while offering toast for the birds to eat off the branches, and giving the trees cider on their roots.

It’s nice to keep this tradition going. We were entertained by the Stafford and Uttoxeter Morris group dancing, and with Dove Valley Mummers acting out their play.

The intention was to ward off bad spirits from the orchards whilst also pleasing the spirits of the fruit trees, to ensure a bountiful crop of fruit in the year ahead. The noisy banishing of spirits seems to bear a close relationship to the rural folk custom of Charivari, or skimmington ride, in which a wrongdoer would be shamed by a large group of people parading around their house, making loud and discordant music.

Another form the wassailing tradition took involved groups of revellers going from house to house to drink toasts and wish good health for the year ahead on the dwellers within. Indeed, the word ‘wassail’ is believed to be derived from the Old English ‘was hál’, meaning ‘be hale’ or ‘good health’.

It may have been indoors for the dancing this year, due to the intense rain. But we still got outside and into the orchards to be with the trees. Absolutely loved the day.