Culinary Christmas - December 14: Wassail, Wassail All Over the Town

Culinary Christmas - December 14: Wassail, Wassail All Over the Town

Featured Foods: Wassail

Wassail is both a noun and a verb. "First and foremost wassailing is an ancient southern English tradition that is performed with the intention of ensuring a good crop of cider apples for the next year's harvest. It also refers to both the salute 'Waes Hail', meaning litereally 'good health' or 'be you healthy'. The drink of wassail is a hot mulled cider traditionally drunk as an integral part of the wassail ceremony."

Today's beverage-ladden contribution of Wassail, Wassail All Over the Town joins our Culinary Christmas theme during the 25 Days. It's sung by The New Christy Minstrels, an American folk music group that has been around since the early 1960s. Kenny Rogers was actually part of the group for a short time.

And just in case this isn't odd enough, Wikipedia notes that "The New Christy Minstrels's name was an adaptation of Christy's Minstrels, a blackface group formed by Philadelphia-born showman Edwin Pearce Christy in 1842. Using largely white performers in blackface, Christy's Minstrels sang Negro spirituals and contemporary songs, and popularized the concept of the minstrel show." Why you would name your group after that is beyond me.

Anyway, before you move on from this daily song, I'd like to point out that I've posted the audio from the 1960's storyteller LP version of A Charlie Brown Christmas over on our personal blog. Feel free to download the MP3s between now and Christmas! It's good stuff

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From the Archives: December 14

What's This All About?
New to Steve's 25 Days of Christmas Music? Take some time to read the explanation and introduction!