Wassail Celebration
Sunday, January 21, 2024
1 – 5 pm
On Sunday, January 21, Rose Hill Farm in Red Hook will have their annual Wassail celebration, a highlight of the season. Hosted by Dan Pucci and Madeleine Osborn, the Wassail celebration will begin with a foraging expedition for crown-making materials at 1 pm, followed by workshops and activities in the taproom leading up to the main event. At 4 pm, revelers will gather to walk into the orchard, where an interactive ceremony will take place.
Wassailing is an old English practice with pagan and Norse roots that involves celebrating the last year’s apple harvest and anointing the trees with cider to encourage a prosperous harvest for the following season. Wassail celebrations typically involve music, recitations, and noise-making in an orchard, all with the goal of awakening the apple trees and scaring away spirits that might blight the crop. Bread is hung on tree branches and the roots are anointed with cider. The wassailing group sings, hollers, and bangs on pots and pans. Troublesome spirits cannot tolerate such a racket.
The Wassail celebration at Rose Hill Farm will borrow from some of these customs and introduce a few new ones as well. All wassailers welcome—prepare to make noise and to make merry! Please bring pots and pans to make noise and stale bread to hang in the trees as an offering to the orchard. Dressing up as a woodland sprite or creature is encouraged. Join us in celebrating the many years of beautiful fruit the orchard at Rose Hill Farm has provided and ensuring an excellent harvest for 2024.
