‘Three cheers to the old apple tree!’:: wassailing and the affective performances of heritage

Alicia Marchant

doi:10.1353/pgn.2019.0058

‘Three cheers to the old apple tree!’: wassailing and the affective performances of heritage

Alicia Marchant

Centre for History of Emotions

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

Abstract

The ancient practice of wassailing to apple trees has had global resurgence in recent years, including in Tasmania where it is performed at the Huon Valley Mid-Winter Fest. First recorded at Fordwich (England) in 1585, wassailing is performed annually on Old Twelfth Night and involves a parading group moving noisily between orchards. Taking the Huon Valley wassail as a focus, I will examine the performative elements of the modern wassail, tracing a genealogy of practice, to ask: what happens when wassailing is transplanted to Tasmania? What sorts of 'pasts' are recalled, and what emotional work does the wassail performance do?

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	141-162
Number of pages	22
Journal	Parergon: Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Volume	36
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1353/pgn.2019.0058
Publication status	Published - Nov 2019

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10.1353/pgn.2019.0058

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title = "{\textquoteleft}Three cheers to the old apple tree!{\textquoteright}:: wassailing and the affective performances of heritage",

abstract = "The ancient practice of wassailing to apple trees has had global resurgence in recent years, including in Tasmania where it is performed at the Huon Valley Mid-Winter Fest. First recorded at Fordwich (England) in 1585, wassailing is performed annually on Old Twelfth Night and involves a parading group moving noisily between orchards. Taking the Huon Valley wassail as a focus, I will examine the performative elements of the modern wassail, tracing a genealogy of practice, to ask: what happens when wassailing is transplanted to Tasmania? What sorts of 'pasts' are recalled, and what emotional work does the wassail performance do?",

author = "Alicia Marchant",

year = "2019",

month = nov,

doi = "10.1353/pgn.2019.0058",

language = "English",

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pages = "141--162",

journal = "Parergon: Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies",

issn = "0313-6221",

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AB - The ancient practice of wassailing to apple trees has had global resurgence in recent years, including in Tasmania where it is performed at the Huon Valley Mid-Winter Fest. First recorded at Fordwich (England) in 1585, wassailing is performed annually on Old Twelfth Night and involves a parading group moving noisily between orchards. Taking the Huon Valley wassail as a focus, I will examine the performative elements of the modern wassail, tracing a genealogy of practice, to ask: what happens when wassailing is transplanted to Tasmania? What sorts of 'pasts' are recalled, and what emotional work does the wassail performance do?

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DO - 10.1353/pgn.2019.0058

M3 - Review article

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JF - Parergon: Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies

IS - 2

ER -

‘Three cheers to the old apple tree!’: wassailing and the affective performances of heritage

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