Apple Wassail

The apple wassail is a custom from the orchard country of Southwest England.  At the end of the Christmas season, people adorned apple trees with bread or cider to bless the trees for a good harvest the following year.

Well may ye blow, well may ye bear
Blossom and fruit both apple and pear.
So that every bough and every twig
May bend with a burden both fair and big
May ye bear us and yield us fruit such a store
That the bags and chambers and house run o'er.

                        —  Devonshire, 1805

Photo credit: jacksonpe / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND