by Judith Stafford | Jan 21, 2021 | Away with the Fairies
Here we go a Wassailing….. (Any excuse to drink cider!) I remember singing the carol ‘Here we go a Wassailing’ at school without having a clue what it was about. Just in case you don’t know. Wassailing is a folk tradition that entails the ritual blessing of fruit trees in winter to ensure a good harvest in the following autumn. It usually involves drinking, making loud noises and apple trees - just an average night out for some people, with an apple tree thrown in! If anyone fancies trying it, the good news is, wassailing has seen a recent revival. What is wassailing Wassailing is the practice of the community visiting the neighbourhood orchards, selecting a tree, usually the oldest, singing, or chanting a rhyme and making lots of noise while drinking mulled cider or wine. The remains of the cider in the wassail cup are poured onto the tree. Wassailing come from the old English words ‘waes hael’ meaning ‘good health’, our equivalent of ‘Cheers’. It started as a drinking salute and later became associated with a particular drink and the tradition of wassailing. Wassailing usually occurs around the Christmas holiday or just after at the beginning of January often on 12th night on the 6th January although it is often celebrated on the old pre-Gregorian 12th night of 17 January. It is probably of pagan origin but was assimilated into Christianity where it became part of the Christmas tradition. The wassailing drink originally started off as a mulled wine or mead, then evolved into a drink more associated with apples and is made of mulled cider, with sugar...
by Judith Stafford | Jan 12, 2021 | Becoming a Wise Woman
How do you feel about your age? Happy, Unhappy, Ambivalent? You are not alone if you don’t feel happy about getting older. For many women, the years between 40 and 60 (or even 70 nowadays) are a time of change, physical, emotional, and spiritual, and that change is rarely welcomed. And no wonder! Look at the words used to describe older women. Old bag Hag Cougar Crone Mutton Menopausal It is hard to find any positive words to describe us – cougar is the best we can hope for! When I am talking about myself, I tend to use the words, mid-life and second half of life to describe this period in our lives, but the word I have embraced for myself, and I would like you to as well, is ‘wise woman’. I think this is a good word to describe us as we get older. Wisdom is something that comes with age – hopefully! Therefore, it is a wonderfully positive way to portray us as we age - growing in power rather than losing it. Our identity and who we are isn’t necessarily something we think much about when we get past our teens – when we are obsessed with it! We are usually too busy being mothers, having jobs and building a life. But as we get older, children grow up and leave home, jobs become may be less exciting and we become perimenopausal and then experience menopause, how we feel about our lives can change. Menopause marks the end of our fertility. It is a definite marker in our lives that men do not have....
Recent Comments