Second Annual
Wassailing Celebration
Come wake
up the trees!
Saturday/Sabado
Feb 10, 2024-3PM
Four Corners Community Farm
336 Budds Corners Rd, Red Hook NY 12571
You are invited to the second annual Wassail celebration at
Four Corners Community Farm!
Wassailing is an old English tradition of blessing the apple orchard in deep winter, to wake the trees up for spring's emergence and to wish for an abundant harvest in the growing season. Wassail comes from the Anglo-Saxon wes hal, or “be whole,” a wish for your beloved ones good health and wholeness. So not only do we bless the apple trees for the year to come, the community that gathers in the orchard also receives these blessings for good fortune. Please come; be merry and help us wake up the slumbering trees.
We will drink cider, sing songs, leave offerings to the trees, make lots of noise and celebrate! We will have a fire.This is a kid-friendly event.
Some details:
Feel free to arrive anytime after 3 pm. We will begin our raucous blessing ritual at 4 pm and the fires will be lit for food and drink afterwards! Follow the signs for parking by the orchard. We will end around 8 pm.
- You are encouraged to bring apple cider, for drinking and for offering to the trees
- Please bring instruments & noisemakers, we must be loud to wake up the trees. If you don't have an instrument, bring a pot to bang on!
- Dress code: be warm! There are traditions where you are encouraged to wear a decorative mask (the idea is that if you wear a spooky mask it will frighten the evil spirits out of the orchard that could cause harm in the coming year)... dress up for the trees! They will love it!
- You are invited to bring biodegradable offerings for the apple trees. We have 49 trees in the orchard, and I plan on baking mini honey cakes to offer to each tree. If you have a muffin tray and would like to bake a dozen to contribute, we can send you a simple, easy recipe to follow (and would be most grateful!).
- Bringing additional food and drink is most encouraged. Waking up the trees is a hearty job, and we will be hungry afterwards!