The Christmas season concludes with Twelfth Night. Associated
with merrymaking and even mischief, Twelfth Night serves as a
bridge between Christmas and Epiphany. It seems appropriate then
to finish up our survey of Christmas Carols with a wassailing
song. Wassailing was a practice that, in some ways, goes back to
pre-Christian Europe, but took on most of its popularity in the
middle ages. It involved door-to-door caroling and, of course,
the drinking of wassail. ”Wassail” is actually an expression, of
Anglo-Saxon and possibly older Norse origins, which means “be
hale” or “be healthy.” The name was transferred to the drink,
typically a hot mulled cider, over the years as people would
offer “Wassail” as a toast. And so the tradition of wassailing
was that of door-to-door caroling with the drinking of wassail
and the wishing of God’s blessing upon the residents of the
house, and it was typically done on Twelfth Night. Of course,
wassailing also took on some other associations. Continue
reading “Lo, How a Rose E