Winter holiday traditions change with time and location, with their current forms retaining little of their old forms,
wassailing (rhymes with fossil-ing) possibly more than most. The modern interpretation of wassailing has been simplified to singing carols, though it was
born of much more diverse traditions, from a cheer of good health before battle to scaring evil spirits from apple orchards. From these origins come
wassail the drink, and that's just one of the
many foods of the winter season (
Food Timeline prev.,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6). A few more are covered below the break.
The term "wassail" goes back to the time of the writing of Beowulf, as a toast to good health, and a Saxon toast before battle. Then there was the wassail to
awake the cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit, also known as
the Apple Wassail, which is
practiced or
reenacted to this day.
The Mari Lwyd (Grey Mare / Holy Mary) wassail (
mentioned prev.) is a Welsh practice of wassailing, where wassailers go door-to-door with
a horse figure, challenging households to singing competitions of sorts. Another form of wassailing was that of a reciprocal exchange between the feudal lords and their peasants , or perhaps
wealthy lords inviting their poor subjects into the manor to feast. This has continued, in so much as
neighbors sing some version of a wassailing song to neighbors.
What better to keep you warm on winter nights than
a warm, spiced cider? The
old forms of wassail (the drink), also called
lambswool (for the light color and frothy appearance of the creamy, egg and apple mixture).
Wassail was covered (
simplified vegan version) on
Alton Brown's Good Eats as part of the
Christmas/winter holiday special (
part 1,
part 2,
part 3,
part 4, and
part 5; more Good Eats from
YouTube user GoodETV). If this historic take is overly complex,
Sandra Lee has a recipe, too (
prev. holiday fun with Sandra Lee). Much more on the tradition of wassail(ing) at
The Web's Wassailing Epicenter.
In Ireland,
Christmas Eve is a day of fasting, with
the meal of the day being fish. When the Irish came to the United States, they brought their tradition, with fish being replaced by oysters, which might be sent inland via train.
Far from the coast, oyster became a symbol of the arrival of the winter holiday season. Good Eats has a recipe here, too:
roast duck with oyster dressing (
more oyster dressing recipes on Food Network). Duck was chosen to replace the
traditional Christmas Goose (
recipe, or
from Gordon Ramsey), which is
an acquired taste and rather rare in the US.
The making of
gingerbread goes back a
long centuries, but not in the current form of gingerbread men and houses. The former
is credited to Queen Elizabeth I, or or so the story goes. If you're looking to cooking up something from the past,
try your hand at some old recipes (from the fifteenth through nineteenth century).
In Wales,
toffee is traditional.
More traditional Christmas sweets.
posted by ninazer0 at 6:34 PM on December 25, 2009