The 7th Day of Xmas: New Year's/Wassail Day

The Romans, whose empire would famously fall, held at New Year’s a “riotous outpouring of fun and festival”.  So, do that, would you?  And be sure to invite me.  Because the Christian churches tried to redirect the frivolity in the direction of Christmas gifts ONLY!!!  (I’m sorry, did you hear a 7th-century bishop yelling and thumping?  I did.)…They were trying to replace some more boisterous Pagan customs with more pacific and explicitly Christian ones.  Yawn!  (Even so, I won't refuse more presents). 

In pre-Christian Rome under the Julian calendar, the day was dedicated to the two-faced god Janus, who presided over gateways and beginnings.  It may be that January was named after him, but in any case he was a big part of celebrating the New Year, for obvious reasons.  Janus is two-faced in the best possible way, no nemesis of Batman or traitorous friend is he.  His double countenances look in opposite directions because one regards the past, the other the future.  And, here I am—stuck in the middle with you, Janus!  To consider one’s past actions and their results, and make resolutions based on these insights, is certainly one way to honor Ol’ Two Face. 

This idea tickles me: that NYD should be not about just resolutions and a baby with a ribbon marked “2017” covering his dangly bits, but about fond remembrance of the year past—and gladness at being alive!  Many are not, and we remember them.  Many more have had close calls, and yet are still here with us, and we cherish them.  We who get to ring in yet another new year are lucky, in a way, because those who have loved, lost and lived are lucky, lucky bastards.  

Speaking of dangly bits: in the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day liturgically marked the Feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus, which is still observed as such in the Anglican Church and Lutheran Church, such holdout penis-mutilating barbarians are they.

--Ugh!

 It’s customary on this day to “wassail” an apple tree.  Disregard the closeness in spelling of “wassail” to to word “assail,” as they are not pronounced alike.  Rather, the former is pronounced  “wossel” and comes from the Welsh “wase haile,” meaning “good health” (the word haile gives us the English expression “hale and hearty”).  So, believe it: we here at the Cottage on Vine wish you great and continued wassail!—Wussup?—WASSAIL!...Participants in the wassailing share a drink with each other, and with the tree, and sing a song among other rituals.  We drink sparkling juice, pouring some down the trunk of some worthy tree in the absence of an apple orchard, and sing the first bit of “The Wassail Song”:

Here we come a-caroling among the leaves so green

Here we come a-wandering, so fair to be seen

Love and joy come  to you, and to you your wassail, too

May God bless you and send you a happy new year,

and God send you a happy new year!

...The rest of the song—it gave me chills to consider it—is really all about poor children begging for crumbs from the rich man’s table:

Good master and good mistress,

As you sit beside the fire,

Pray think of us poor children

Who wander in the mire.

...In the mire--think on that.  Such a merry tune depicting, even in such a good-natured way, our enduring societal schism between haves and have-nots--it hurts my heart.  Rich and poor: worst invention ever.  So I will champion whatever culture will eliminate those two extremes.  The Buddha, that Christ figure of the East*, might side with me, seeing as how both excess and lack lead to a narrow pursuit of material stuff: the rich want to keep it no matter what, and the poor would like to be rich, no matter what.  This is attachment--very counterproductive if you want to be free.  However--it's like these enlightened teachers read each other's diaries--Jesus' story of the rich man who refuses to sell all his possessions and follow him embodies the same message.

Rich or poor—or neither—all can revel in beauty.  The best and most enduring beauty comes from Nature, if She is allowed to maintain Her balance and grow old, old trees and deep, deep soil full of godzillions of organisms and micro-organisms.  Nature wants to give us such gifts-that-keep-on-giving as oxygen, nutritious food, and clean air and water.  Nothing we build—not even some of the materials we use to do so—grows back after time and tide destroys it, we can only rebuild it with some more of our toxic, unnatural crap.  Nature, on the other hand, always grows back stronger, more varied and sophisticated—and ever more beautiful.  I’m guessing that both rich and poor can agree on that one—or at least we may agree in the end, and just maybe it won’t be too late to turn this toxic-sludge-dumping barge around….

The ritual for wassail (think of it as a reminder of our need for Nature) continues by dipping the low branches of your wassail tree in cider and making a great ruckus to chase off tree-infecting evil spirits (also known as the emerald ash borer, dutch elm disease, chestnut blight, sudden oak death; or the ubiquitous parasite that has given each one of these curses a leg up—modern civilization).  You may leave treats for the robins or chickadees (birds seen as guardian spirits of the trees).  If you have a well, you draw the lucky first bucket of water from the well (or I suppose you could get a glass of water from the tap?) or search for a bull-shaped cloud in the sky to tell you, according to its position there, of the fortunes of the coming year (the bull and the well traditions are Scottish, BTW).  But no matter what you do, keep your hearts sweet, the world fine, and Nature intact—or, at some point, there simply will be no more new years for us.

 Here is one Waissail ritual with delicious Pagan under- and overtones, held on a certain cider farm in New South Wales:

Those who have turned up for the wassail ceremony move near to an apple tree, decorated with glass balls and coloured ribbons, signifying good and evil spirits.  Not far away is what resembles a scarecrow, which will be burnt.

"The idea is to chase away the evil spirits and wake up the trees," ...As the flames take hold, there is also a piece of coal from last year's blaze placed in the fire...."This resembles the cycle of spring and winter."

The ancient incantation is done:

"Here's to thee, old apple tree.
"That blooms well, bears well.
"Hats full, caps full. Three bushel bags full.
"An' all under one tree. Hurrah! Hurrah!"

...A shotgun is discharged, with the shot across the top of the decorated apple tree.

We here at The Cottage On Vine have our own divination practices.  My favorite is to write Nordic runes on lima beans, and plant them.  Each rune, aside from having an alphabetic sound value, represents a certain constellation of essential principles or forces.  For instance, the “fehu” (ᚠ) rune represents "movable" wealth (like cattle, and money) and the forces that contribute to it, while the “algiz” (ᛉ) rune stands, in the same way, for protection, among other things.   We each plant 3 rune beans in our own pots, and whichever rune-bean sprouted first for each of us equals the most significant issue to that individual in the coming year. 


But some people like their tarot cards, or their astrology.  Wonderful!  Let us all encourage, one new year at a time, each to pursue his own (as long as he’s not hurting anyone else, or damaging Nature). 

 I don’t care, by the way, if you or I or anyone disbelieves in the accuracy of such ‘new-agey’ practices.  Actually they are quite ancient, although certainly "fictitious" in their way.  But they all do address deep, universal themes, and if one works with those themes in whatever way, attentively and consciously, good will result, even if the prophetic value seems random according to science.  Not only that, but, like the Twelve Days of Xmas, divination systems like tarot or runes address a wide breadth of themes, which, along with their random nature, ensure that over the course of time we don't forget to consider some one important idea that might otherwise get lost in the shuffle. Plus, who’s to say that random isn’t better –fresher—than our own version of the so-called ‘rational’?  What of our “ruts”—our habits of mind and action?  Better than random?  Who knows?  So give it a go and practice your own form of divination to start getting a handle on the coming year.  Flip coins, take bets on 2020.  If nothing else, tarot cards and rune-beans are less boring than resolution lists—and whether based on fact or fiction might lead to the best of all possible outcomes--a good STORY!

Happy 2020!

*Fun fact:  the Buddha's birthday leaps around!  From Wikipedia: "The exact date of Buddha's birthday is based on the Asian lunisolar calendars. The date for the celebration of Buddha's birthday varies from year to year in the Western Gregorian calendar, but usually falls in April or May. In leap years it may be celebrated in June."

MUSIC:  [My playlist available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpqOWO6ctsg&list=PLdartdqjh56DxOEzeYPajjRYH6rHEraTt] 

“The Wassail Song” by Smalltown Poets; 
“The New Year” by Death Cab for Cutie ;
“Our New Year” and "Pretty Good Year" by Tori Amos;
"Sunshine" by Atmosphere;  
 “One Mint Julep by The Clovers;
“Earth Song” (We really should make a global New Year’s resolution to keep the planet habitable) by Michael Jackson;
“Where did you sleep last night?” by Nirvana;
“Headache” by Liz Phair;
“I'm only sleeping” by The Vines;
“Gold and Green-Maybe Baby (New Year's Day)” by Sugarland; 
 “Funky New Year” by the Eagles;
“This Is the New Year” by A Great Big World ;
 “After New Years Eve” by The Heartbeats;
“A Long December” by Counting Crows;
“What Will The New Year Bring?” by Donna Fargo; 
"Nothin' New For New Year" by Harry Connick, Jr. and George Jones;
“Happy New Year” by Judy Garland;
“Happy New Year” by Kid Rock;
“Gonna Make It Through This Year” by Great Lake Swimmers;
“Congratulations - A Happy New Year Song” by Pink Martini;
“Christmas Ain't Christmas, New Years Ain't New Years Without The One You Love” by The O'Jays; “Bringing In A Brand New Year” by Charles Brown;
“A New Year Carol (Levy-Dew, a Welsh carol)” by Choir Of Downside School, Purley;
“Shchedryk (Carol of the Bells)” by Bel Canto Choir Vilnius;
“Happy New Year” by ABBA;