Thaxted Wassail at Clarence House Gardens, Thaxted Essex England,UK. 21 January 2017

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Thaxted Wassail at Clarence House Gardens, Thaxted Essex England,UK. 21 January 2017 Members of the Thaxted community, some dressed in Green Man costume, wassailed in the ancient orchard where they sang traditional folk songs to wandering musicians and made much noise using kitchen implements to ward off evil spirits to promote a good apple harvest for this year. Hot apple cider and apple cake is served. The orchard-visiting wassail refers to the ancient custom of visiting orchards in cider-producing regions of England, reciting incantations and singing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year. Traditionally, the wassail is celebrated on Twelfth Night (variously on either January 5 or 6). Some people still wassail on "Old Twelvey Night", January 17, as it would have been before the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. The Thaxted Wassail occurs on the weekend nearest to the old twelfth night.

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Size: 7360px × 4912px
Location: Thaxted Essex England UK
Photo credit: © BRIAN HARRIS / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: ancient, apple, apples, brian, clarence, dark, english, epiphany, evil, gardens, harris, harvest, house, incantations, night, pagan, spirits, spooky, strange, thaxted, tradition, twelfth, typical, wassail, wassailer, wassailing