• Holidays,  Atheology

    Old Ways, New Days

    It is midnight on the 29th of December. I have just returned from the Sebastopol Wassail, which is conducted annually by the Apple Tree Morris dancing team in my local area. Wassailing is an old English tradition. Poor people going from house to house begging became conflated with people going from tree to tree in the apple orchards, making offerings in the deep winter in the hopes of bountiful harvests in the coming year. There are many songs, many dances, many traditions. And we hope you prove kind with your cakes and strong ale Or we’ll come no more nigh you until the next year Tonight, I sang the songs,…