MODERN ECCENTRICS The Wassailers

IN A WORLD THAT CAN FEEL INCREASINGLY UNIFORM, WE’RE CELEBRATING THOSE HAPPILY DOING THINGS a bit differently. Meet the PEOPLE WHO ARE seriously PASSIONATE about their pastimes. PERHAPS THEY’LL PERSUADE YOU TO TRY something NEW?

Words: JULIAN OWEN

It’s quite the mood jolt, turning the calendar from 31 December to 1 January. In hymnal terms, it’s goodbye Joy To The World, hello In The Bleak Midwinter. Once, there was a tradition to soften the blow: wassailing, a centuries-old carousing custom cast adrift in Georgian times by the rising tide of the industrial revolution. It was a key festive element in that pre-urban world, when Christmas Day was not the pinnacle of party time but the beginning, the pivot between Advent fasting and 12 days of merriment. Wassailing came in for the big blowout at the end, on Twelfth Night. But yet… glad tidings! In recent times, it has been undergoing a resurgence. Wassailing takes two forms, explains dedicated revivalist Lorna Rees. One involves merrymakers going door to door to…

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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 2024

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