The wonderful thing about traditions is that they evolve and are free to adapt and change to the wants, needs and foibles of those they serve. Cue the Sussex Blossail.
The Winter Wassail
Wassailing is an old tradition which is all about ensuring a good apple harvest, warding off evil spirits and promoting good health (be hale) during the depths of winter. It takes place around Twelfth Night (typically 5 or 6 January or 17 January). In Sussex, as well as elsewhere, wassailing has been enjoying a revival in recent years, perhaps because in an era that sometimes feels like it’s steering us away from connection, people instinctively seem to want to reconnect with their environment and their community in a way that feels wholesome and good.
The Spring Wassail
Spring wassailing is a variation of winter wassailing and is also all about blessing apple trees for a fruitful harvest. It too involves singing, making noise and warding off evil spirits. The spring wassail was still being observed as late as the mid-1900s.
A Blossail
This April, Mythago Morris are reviving the spring wassail and another Sussex tradition, wassailing of honeybees. And as the trees are in blossom, their spring wassail has morphed into a ‘blossail’, a portmanteau that apparently originated from the folk singer Jim Causley.
As the Mythago Morris explain:
“Unlike the winter apple howling, which seeks to wake the dormant trees, the blossail marries the tradition of wassailing with the themes underpinning English maying customs. It seeks to honour the active flowering phase of the trees (the blossom) and the arrival of pollinators (the bees). It also celebrates the interdependent relationship between pollinators and the blossom, the ‘child’ of their union being the fruit of the tree. For this reason, the blossail acts as a ‘Great Wedding’ of nature, ensuring fertility and abundance for the coming year.
The importance of bees was once honoured in the uniquely Sussex custom of wassailing honeybees, which is remembered in a verse of the ’Sussex Sugar Wassail’, which was collected by the Rev. John Broadwood in the 1840s:
We’ll cut a toast all round the loaf, and set it by the fire,
We’ll wassail bees, and apple-trees, unto your hearts’ desire.
In the mid-20th century, the vicar of Amberley also documented a ‘wassail chant’ used for this Twelfth Night rite, which is thought to date partly from the medieval period. Alas, this chant has rather sexist undertones, so it won’t be featured in our blossail!”
Mythago Morris
Mythago Morris are a masked dance side who dance in the Border/ Bedlam Morris style, and dress is a dramatic and startling style. They tell the tales of the ancient Albion through music and dance. The Albion is an old word for Great Britain and a mystical time of mythology, giants and magic. Mythago use a mix of traditional and modern tunes, some written by them, which are played on the violin, mandolin, guitar, dulcimer, banjo, whistle, melodeon and drums. They also use an amplifier and are heavy on the percussion. The result is quite remarkable. It is tribal, earthy and profoundly evocative and you cannot help but feel a connection to mystical times past.
Where to Blossail
The Mythago Morris will be Blossailing this year at Steyning at 2pm in the Steyning Community Orchard on Sunday 19th April. Entry is free but you need to come along with your pots and pans to help celebrate this Sussex tradition. There will be some of the familiar elements of their winter wassail, but combined with some new additions to reflect the change of season. Please note that this event will be weather dependent.
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