Wassailing

The band were booked to play at the after Wassail ceilidh at Penkhull, Stoke on Trent for the second year running.

Rather than just going for the evening I went during the day to join in the wassailing.  Wassailing is the ancient tradition of blessing the fruit trees to  give a good harvest. It involves fire torches, singing and morris dancing. In some areas they fire guns in the air too. Everyone has a cup of cider and then cider dipped bread is hung on the trees to show that they have been blessed. 

My blip is of the morris dancers dancing in the orchard which was in someone's garden.  The extra is of some of the singers and morris at another stop where they blessed an individual apple tree in another garden.

The ceilidh was great too - a sell out with a waiting list. It was lovely to see a hall full of people dancing and enjoying themselves.