Cider and animal bones in pagan-rooted Brit ritual for bountiful apple crop

AFP English

A cider bowl is passed around and animal bone costumes dance a jig as a crowd wishes good health to apple trees. It’s a tradition with pagan roots in the UK known as wassailing, which is enjoying something of a revival. "I think there's a big movement at the minute, particularly in the UK, to reclaim some of the lost pagan histories that are around," says Cordelia Roberts, a participant at an urban wassail in the east London suburb of Hackney.

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00:00I'm now going to pass this on. Anyone who dares take a slurp and pass on and do a little dribble for the tree.

00:22I just love the kind of, the feel to it.

00:25You're part of a group, it's a real nice team feeling.

00:29It's very sensible, lots of drinking, lots of meeting people and having a laugh.

00:40Nobody really knows the roots of this or exactly how it worked, but it was about making lots of noise, waking up the spirit of the trees

00:48and giving them, not a sacrifice, but a libation of cider and saying, this is what you did last time, please do it again and give us a good year.

00:59Yeah, I think there's a big movement at the minute for, particularly within the UK, to reclaim some of the lost pagan histories

01:07that are around and to be able to let people to engage with a community spirit.

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