Caroling, or 'wassailing' as it's sometimes known in England, is a Christmas tradition that dates back to the mid-1600's. The word 'wassail' comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word 'waes hael' meaning 'good health'. The word was initially applied to the bowl which held whatever beverage was being consumed at the time, but over time became applied to the beverage itself. A traditional English-style wassail was generally a cider spiked with wine and all manner of fruits and spices. Our spiced apple cider and mulled wines that we drink during the holidays are direct descendants of wassail. But, how did the name for this beverage become a verb?
Christmas carols have been sung in England for centuries, most often as a way to bring cheer and usually sung by minstrels who wandered throughout the fortified city or castle. As England moved away from castles to villages, the tradition of having carols sung at Christmastime moved with them, this time taken up by the villagers themselves, who would wander from house to house singing songs to brighten up someone's holiday and perhaps get a gold coin or two for their troubles. Most carols originally were sung by waits – who were also sometimes called watchmen. They were officially sanctioned by the leaders of the community, and if anyone was caught caroling who was not authorized as a wassailer, they were treated as a beggar and run out of the town. These carolers were called 'waits' or 'watchmen' because they kept an eye open for the Three Wisemen or the Bethlehem star, and would sing songs about the coming nativity. If the owner of the house did not have any money to trade for the singing of a carol, he would instead offer a cup of the house wassail to warm them as they went on their way. And so caroling, or wassailing, was offered up as a way from someone to stay warm during the cold night.
In the early parts of our Christmas heritage, carols were particularly frowned upon by the early church fathers. Solemn hymns or psalms were the only songs allowed during church service. Carols were devised as songs to be sung during the secular celebrations of Christmas, away from the church. They were mostly songs written and sung by commoners, and quickly grew into popular favor, as was the custom of gift-giving.
The giving of gifts was not a common practice among early celebrations. Ancient customs were mainly of a very loud and rowdy "end-of-year" party, full of music, public drunkenness and debauchery – the very reason the church fathers wanted nothing to do with Christmas, and the reason why this celebration was banned for years or sometimes decades! When Oliver Cromwell and the puritans came into power in England in 1647, the celebration of Christmas was completely snuffed out. Well, not completely. Christmas celebrations were still held privately in homes: stories were told, carols sung, and wassail flowed generously - all in secret. But still no gift giving.
In mid-1800's Victorian England there was a renaissance of an "Old-Fashioned" Christmas due to several decades of Christmas being banned in England. Somewhat in part to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, it is mostly due to Charles Dickens' immortal classic tale, "A Christmas Carol" where we get most of our modern ideas of Christmas, including Christmas being about family, good-will to all men, and the phrase 'Merry Christmas'. It was also at this time that Christmas began to be celebrated in earnest by Americans as well. Americans, up until this point, had pockets of celebrations here and there, mainly dependent on whatever ethnic group had brought their own customs to the region they settled in. The practice of gift giving during this time was originally Dutch in origin, and we owe our annual mayhem to the city of New York who revived this old custom from the original knickerbocker settlers in the area.
New York, Virginia, and of course Pennsylvania - with their German-influenced 'Pennsylvania Dutch - were largely responsible for the revival of the Christmas Holiday in the US, and with them came the additional notion of giving gifts during the holiday, thanks in part to C. Clement Moore's poem, "A Visit From Saint Nicholas", otherwise known as 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. With the image of Kris Kringle placing gifts under the tree, this firmly cemented the idea in our modern celebration.
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