| The day started with a bit of dancing. Here are Phoenix and their illustrious band. | |
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| Kintbury morris did a couple of dances. I'm sure one day someone will come out of that house - but it's never happened yet. | |
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| Old Speckled Hen dancing in the street. The road users were especially patient and helpful - it must be the residual christmas spirit. | |
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| Mabel Gubbins were the first Rapper side to appear at one of our wassails. Here they are dancing in the street. Later on, the pubs carpets were rolled back and they continued indoors. | |
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| Here are OBJ dancing the new addition to our repertoire - Much Gridlock. It's like Much Wenlock but with heavier traffic. | |
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| Then it was time for the wassail
"ceremony". Pam had prepared huge quantities of
Wassail cake, which was distributed to the assembled
company. Meanwhile, appropriate songs are sung and poems
read (or is it vice versa?). A bean is secreted inside one piece of cake, and by tradition, the lucky recipient becomes King or Queen of the Bean - depending on gender, orientation and whatever. |
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| The
Queen turned out to be Queen Linda the First - or at
least she thought that was her name (she appeared to be a
bit tired and emotional). She selected her consort as
King Paul the First. Together, the regal couple presided over the ceremony, without falling off the table hardly at all. |
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| We
had hunted a wren (all over Woolworths) and it was duly
sacrificed and buried in the roots of Diane's apple tree.
Toast and Cider were added to the tree and evil spirits
duly driven out. We then sung to the landlord to be let into the pub, and immediately came back out again to watch the mummers. (no animals were harmed during the making of this wassail - only birds!) |
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| Yateley Mummers came along and
produced an excellent performance. On the left, our
heroes (and villains) prepare for the curtain to rise. As the play progressed the body heap got higher and higher, until at last The Doctor arrived with his assistant (K9) and resurrected them all. So good triumphed over evil and we all went inside the pub and played music and danced until we just couldn't carry on. |
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| Here endeth the scrapbook entry for the 2006 wassail, except to say a big thank you to everyone who participated or just stood around enjoying it. | |