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Feast of St. Nicholas Wassail Party and Hanging of the Greens
Despite the weather conditions, we ARE STILL hosting the Feast of St. Nicholas Wassail Party and Hanging of the Greens here at Ivy Hall! Please join us for this annual Christmas event for a night of friendship, feasting and caroling.
Saturday, December 6, 2003 from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
COSTS:
$20/person, $50/family
Party commences with wassail, seasonal refreshments, Christmas Caroling sing-a-long with organ, and a special visit from St. Nicholas.
Updated schedule is as follows:
5:00 p.m. Vigil Mass for 2nd Sunday in Advent at Our Lady of Lourdes Church
6:00 p.m. Doors of Ivy Hall open
7:00 p.m. Feasting commences with Wassail and tastes of the Season, Tree trimming in the Ballroom
8:30 p.m. visit from St. Nicholas
9:00 p.m. Caroling commences in the Ball Room lead by Tim McDonnell on organ
Wassail -A very old British toast pledged in mead, wine, etc., the word being derived from the Old Anglo-Saxon "wes hal" literally, be in good health. The verb means to sit carousing.
Feel free to attend the Vigil Mass at Our Lady Of Lourdes before stopping by the party!
WASSAIL
A festive occasion on which toasts are drunk;
In Saxon times you would have used the original form of this word, was hail, to greet or say goodbye to somebody; it literally meant "be in good health". By the twelfth century, it had become the salutation you offered as a toast, to which the standard reply was drinc hail, "drink good health". (Hail is an older form of our modern word hale, "health; well-being" and is also closely connected with our word hail meaning "to salute, greet, welcome".) The toast seems to have come over with the Danes; by the twelfth century the Norman conquerors of Britain regarded it as one of the most characteristic sayings of the country. Later on, the word came to be used also for the drink in which the toast was offered, especially the spiced ale or mulled wine that was drunk on Christmas Eve or Twelfth Night. In the western counties of Britain, the tradition grew up on Twelfth Night of toasting the good health of the apple trees that would bear the crop from which next year's cider would be made. Pieces of bread soaked in cider were placed in the crooks of trees, guns were fired to ward off evil spirits, and special songs were sung:
Let every man take off his hat
And shout out to th'old apple tree
Old apple tree we wassail thee
And hoping thou will bear.
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WHERE:
Ivy Hall, 6331 Lancaster Ave., Philadelphia[click here for directions]
Please RSVP if you would like to attend by Wednesday, December 3rd. Phone (215) 877-9910.
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