The burning man …
Today we were lucky enough to participate in an ancient ritual which also happens to play out every year down the Huon at mid-winter. If you are like me, you will not have the faintest idea what wassailing means. According to the Head Curator of the National Trust in the UK, Sally-Anne Huxtable, the word 'wassail' comes from the Anglo-Saxon phrase 'waes hál', which apparently means 'good health' and the pagan practise of “wassailing” is believed to have started in the apple growing areas of southern England in the 16-th century. Groups of people, dressed up in bright costumes including green face paint and foliage, would walk between apple orchards making a loud noise and singing. The purpose of this expedition was to scare away the evil spirits that lurk in the orchards and damage the crops. During the visit a communal wassail bowl – filled with a warm spiced cider or ale – would be shared among the revellers.
Cut to 2021 and it seems that the Huon Valley now has the largest wassailing gathering in the Southern Hemisphere. Tonight (Saturday 17 July) the Huon mid-winter festival reached a climax when a crowd gathered at Willie Smith’s apple barn to burn a two-storey wicker man, ‘Big Willie’. Lit by a flaming arrow, burning this 15m high effigy symbolises collectively letting go of all negative energy. It seems as though the orchard singing part has simply been replaced with a massive bonfire!
Cath and I put our names into a lottery to get a ticket to the burning of Big Willie, but unfortunately our names didn’t come up (Covid restrictions mean that numbers are limited and there is certainly no talk of a common waissailing cup!). However, just as we thought we would have to live with our negative energy for the entire year, our neighbour, Geoff, who also happens to be our major supplier of horse manure, popped in with an invite to “the burning man” an alternative wassailing gathering at his place which also culminates in a huge bonfire.
The occasion certainly lived up to expectations. There were two burning men, both about 3 metres high.
The actual burning part was spectacular and even on a mid-winter Tasmanian evening, we had rosy cheeks from the heat which was generated. I could just feel my pagan spirits lift as the negative energy departed.
The wassailing came at just the right time for us, as yesterday we planted our domestic orchard. Of course, Cath had carefully planned which variety of tree would go in which box and had sketched it all up. Pepper did her bit to help by generally running around like a mad thing biting at the grass - her rather peculiar way of being helpful.
We now have 12 eating apple trees, 2 cider apple trees, 2 plum trees and 2 pear trees all beautifully planted up in the boxes we prepared about 6 months ago. Well if I am to be truthful, they are just sticks at the moment rather than trees! It was a long day which started early while the mist was still shrouding the valley and ended in the late afternoon sunshine.
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