Page 11 - NT 2022 Almanac

The colourful festivals of light such as Christmas, Hanukkah and Diwali might be over, but January has its fair share of celebrations to look forward to.
5th January Twelfth Night
For Christians, Twelfth Night used to be the day when Christmas was celebrated. In some countries, 5th January is still the day on which children get their presents.
It is also known as Epiphany, St Nicholas’s Day and the Feast of the Three Kings. For most people in Britain, it’s when the Christmas decorations come down, so it’s not such a fun day.
5th January Wassailing
Wassailing is a pagan tradition. The word wassail comes from the Anglo-Saxon words waes hael which mean ‘good health’. The festival
is like many other winter celebrations in that it looks forward to what people hope for in the
new year to come: good weather, good health and a good harvest.
Wassailing involves going out into the countryside to bless the apple trees.
The wassail king and queen lead everyone in a sing-song
around the tree to encourage it to produce lots of apples.
The wassail queen sometimes climbs the tree
and offers it some bread soaked in cider. You could make mulled apple juice to soak bread in instead.
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