Apple Yowling at the Ferry Boat Inn was started by Katy Andrews in 2013 when she organised a small group of people to meet at the oldest orchard in Waltham Forest to perform the ancient ritual also known as apple wassailing. In two years she grew it such that many people celbrated the event in 2015. Sadly Katy passed-on later that year.
The ritual would have been carried-out throughout the apple growing areas of England and still remains strong in the South West, Kent and Sussex.
The tradition now also to continue for Waltham Forest on each Old Twelfth Night. The ritual and celebration consists of singing traditional songs, drinking spiced cider and offering same cider to the apple trees. There will be extended traditional revelries in the 17th century (English Heritage Listed) Ferry Boat Inn.
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
There are many well recorded instances of the Apple Wassail in the early modern period. The first recorded mention was at Fordwich, Kent, in 1585, by which time groups of young men would go between orchards performing the rite for a reward. The practice was sometimes referred to as "howling". On Twelfth Night, men would go with their wassail bowl into the orchard and go about the trees. Slices of bread or toast were laid at the roots and sometimes tied to branches. Cider was also poured over the tree roots. The ceremony is said to "bless" the trees to produce a good crop in the forthcoming season.
