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National Trust Stowe and The Mid Shires Orchard Group welcome you to our 2026 Winter Wassail! The Anglo-Saxon wes haile! or wase hail! was a hearty wish for good health and fortune. We shout Wassail! to toast our apple trees, that they may be healthy and fruitful for the coming year and bring us good harvest and bounty. We also make lots of noise to ward off bad luck and mischievous spirits, so they stay away and don’t steal the fruit!We welcome audience participation in the Wassail song. Also, whenever the Wassail Leader says ‘Wassail!’, please respond with a loud cheer of ‘Huzzah!’
We encourage you to bring something along to help us make as much noise as possible. So grab those bells, drums, whistles, pots and pans, cups with stones in, or anything else you can find.
The ceremony will involve a lively procession from New Inn, down Bell Gate Drive and towards the orchard/apple tree. We will then toast the orchard and give the Wassail blessing for an abundant harvest from the apple trees followed by the cider soaking of bread which we will hang on trees as gifts for robins. After which we will sing the traditional Wassail song: Here we come a Wassailing, before continuing back up Bell Gate Drive.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
National Trust - Stowe, New Inn Farm,Buckingham, United Kingdom
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