Perry or pear cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally in England ; parts of South Wales; France ; Canada; Australia; and New Zealand. There is growing interest in artisanal perry production in the fruit-growing regions of the northwest United States.
Twelfth Night is a Christian festival on the last night of the Twelve Days of Christmas, marking the coming of the Epiphany. Different traditions mark the date of Twelfth Night as either 5 January or 6 January, depending on whether the counting begins on Christmas Day or 26 December. January 6 is celebrated as the feast of Epiphany, which begins the Epiphanytide season.
Wassail is a beverage made from hot mulled cider, ale, or wine and spices, drunk traditionally as an integral part of wassailing, an ancient English Yuletide drinking ritual and salutation either involved in door-to-door charity-giving or used to ensure a good harvest the following year.
Cider apples are a group of apple cultivars grown for their use in the production of cider. Cider apples are distinguished from "cookers" and "eaters", or dessert apples, by their bitterness or dryness of flavour, qualities which make the fruit unpalatable but can be useful in cidermaking. Some apples are considered to occupy more than one category.
The tradition of wassailing falls into two distinct categories: the house-visiting wassail and the orchard-visiting wassail. The house-visiting wassail is the practice of people going door-to-door, singing and offering a drink from the wassail bowl in exchange for gifts; this practice still exists, but has largely been displaced by carol singing. The orchard-visiting wassail refers to the ancient custom of visiting orchards in cider-producing regions of England, reciting incantations and singing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year. Notable traditional wassailing songs include "Here We Come a-Wassailing", "Gloucestershire Wassail", and "Gower Wassail".
Thatchers Cider is a family-owned cider maker in Sandford, North Somerset, England.
Carhampton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, 4 miles (6.4 km) to the east of Minehead.
Whimple is a village and civil parish in East Devon in the English county of Devon, approximately 9 miles (14 km) due east of the city of Exeter, and 3 miles (4.8 km) from the nearest small town, Ottery St Mary. It has a population of 1,642, recounted to 1,173 for the village alone in the United Kingdom Census 2011. The electoral ward with the same name had a population of 2,380 at the above census.
A cider house is an establishment that sells alcoholic cider for consumption on the premises. Some cider houses also sell cider "to go", for consumption off the premises. A traditional cider house was often little more than a room in a farmhouse or cottage, selling locally fermented cider.
Here We Come A-wassailing, also known as Here We Come A-Christmasing,Wassail Song and by many other names, is a traditional English Christmas carol and New Year song, typically sung whilst wassailing, or singing carols, wishing good health and exchanging gifts door to door. It is listed as number 209 in the Roud Folk Song Index. Gower Wassail and Gloucestershire Wassail are similar wassailing songs.
Apple Day is an annual celebration of apples and orchards, held in October. It is celebrated mainly in the United Kingdom. It traditionally falls on 21 October, the date of the first such event in 1990, but events are held throughout the month. It is commonly a weekend event, usually taking place on the Saturday and Sunday closest to 30 October.
Nowell Sing We Clear is a previously four-member musical group that performs an annual yuletide concert series. They have also released a series of related albums.
The Whimple Wassail is an orchard-visiting wassail ceremony which takes place in the Devon village of Whimple annually every Old Twelfth Night. The Whimple Wassail was first mentioned by the Victorian author and folklorist Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould in his book Devon Characters and Strange Events.
The Yarlington Wassail is a Wassail held in the village of Yarlington, Somerset, England, and dating from the 17th century.
Cider in the United Kingdom is widely available at pubs, off licences, and shops. It has been made in regions of the country where cider apples were grown since Roman times; in those regions it is intertwined with local culture, particularly in the West Country.
'Tom Putt' is a traditional variety of dual purpose apple, often used as a cider apple, originating in Devon. It was also known as Ploughman, Coalbrook, Marrowbone, Thomas Jeffreys and by many other local names.
Slack-ma-Girdle is an old variety of cider apple formerly widely grown in the South-West of England. It is one of a group of similar and closely related varieties all often known by the name "Woodbine".
Dufflin is an old variety of cider apple from the County of Cornwall, England. It was included in orchard trials by Long Ashton Research Station in 1957.
In English folklore, the Apple Tree Man is the name given to the spirit of the oldest apple tree in an orchard, and in whom the fertility of the orchard is thought to reside. Tales about the Apple Tree Man were collected by the folklorist Ruth Tongue in the cider-producing county of Somerset. In one story a man offers his last mug of mulled cider to the trees in his orchard on Christmas Eve. He is rewarded by the Apple Tree Man who reveals to him the location of buried gold, more than enough to pay his rent.
Major is a cider apple cultivar first grown in the United Kingdom in the area of Devon and Somerset.
