So, a-wassailing we went

...and very on point we were too

All photos: Rashmee Roshan Lall

Our part of London has been wassailing for nearly a decade and this year- the eighth wassail — was particularly splendiferous.

Upwards of a hundred people turned up in the Pleasaunce, a walled 19th century garden, many wearing a wassail crown (of fake leaves on fake boughs that were twisted into wreath-shaped headgear). Little children and dogs of all sizes ran around, while the Halstow community choir sang sweetly, giving way to the Greenwich Morris Men, who stepped about energetically and rhythmically. Then came the Morrigans, a local folk group attired in rich purple costumes that might have been lifted from a mediaeval English chest. Taru, a non-profit that teaches drumming, gave a mini class to the gathering, which managed to play a good set or two using inverted biscuit tins or drawing a percussive beat from two sticks like claves. The local café did a brisk sale in mulled cider, which is the very wassail we’ve been serving in our neighbourhood for …