Wassailing the day away as tradition is celebrated in Congresbury
PUBLISHED: 18:00 19 January 2017
Green Man Brian Kemplay leads the ceremony with Charlotte Nowser and Iris Lowman.
(C)2016 Jeremy Long / JCLPhotography, all rights reserved
People in Congresbury grabbed their pots and pans to banish evil spirits at this year’s ever-popular wassailing ceremony.
Wassailing is a popular Somerset tradition, which is said to bless apple trees in the hope they will produce an excellent harvest for cider-making.
Congresbury’s ceremony was held at the Millennium Green on Saturday afternoon, and saw the Wassail queen place cider-soaked toast on the apple tree to encourage a good crop of apples.
Villagers then made loud noises using pots and pans to ward off any evil spirits from within the orchard and to awaken the cider trees for a successful harvest.
