January 17, as written here before, is Christmas on the Julian calendar, Old Twelfth Night. Wassailing was traditional on or around this day and still is in some parts of England.
A wine or ale spiced punch to toast the health of apple trees and cattle, wassail is both drink and toast, noun and verb, and a beloved Christmas Carol I grew up singing,
Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green;
Here we come a-wand’ring
So fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail too;
And God bless you and send you
a happy New Year.
From a history of all things wassail from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation:
The text of the carol employs noun and verb forms of “wassail,” a word derived from the Old Norse ves heil and the Old English was hál and meaning “be in good health” or “be fortunate.”
One of the many interesting things I learned here is that our use of toast originates with the wassail bowl, when crisps of bread as well as citrus rinds would be floated.
All the more pertinent to les collines, roasted crabapples too seem to have been traditionally floated in the punch. A lot of floating objects in the wassail….
Anyways a toast on a cold night seems right, spiced and with hissing crabapples or not. Especially as it has finally gotten quite cold here, a real January cold at last and a light snow coming down.
A good time to find cheer post modern-day Christmas, so pour yourself a cup, be warm and of good heart, and drink to the health of cows and apples. To their fertility and abundance, and ours, ves heil, xo
Wassail, was hal, ves heil, what a lovely way to appreciate January, to celebrate as you say, after the modernized December activities. Thank you for the derivation and good wishes. Heres to the hissing hot crabapples floating merrily in the punch, was hal!