Waes Hael

by Mighty Force

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about

A History Lesson (yeah it's a bit long, humour me)
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In the South West of England, Old Twelvey Night, celebrated on January 17th, is the traditional date for Waes Hael, the ancient custom of blessing the apple trees for a good harvest with lots of singing, drinking spiced cider (waeshael/wassail) and making noise to scare off evil spirits. That's thanks to the old Julian calendar that we followed before switching to the Gregorian one in 1752. We were a bit late doing that as the rest of Europe did it in 1582, a mere 170 years earlier!

Good old England, eh?

Anyway, Waes Hael is a pagan-rooted ritual to ensure fertility and health for the orchards, led by a Wassail King and Queen (King Bean & Queen Pea) and the Hollyman (the Midwinter King). Apples were rather important back then because it wasn't safe to drink the water, barley harvests were unpredictable for beer – plus it was more expensive to make - and wine was only for the rich. Apples were reliable. Peasants could make cider in their back yard. So they did... and everyone drank it, including the kids.

The Hollyman is the winter guise of the Green Man, a figure decked in the evergreen foliage of holly, ivy, and yew. He is the embodiment of the half of the year spanning from midwinter to midsummer. Old Twelvey Night is the celebration of his victory in the winter solstice battle over his adversary, the Oak Man. The Oak Man limps away into the woodland to nurse his wounds for six months, to recover and heal then re-emerge at the next Summer Solstice.

“If music be the food of love, play on”, as Shakespeare wrote at the beginning of Twelfth Night. Which just to be awkward has little to do with actual Twelfth Night and was first performed on Candlemas (February 2nd) 1602, in that era, the night to take down your Christmas decorations.

Bloody Elizabethans.

And so, to keep the confusion going, we've got a baker's dozen of tracks to celebrate Old Twelvey and bless yer apples!

Hope you're all clear on that.

WAES HAEL!

credits

released January 15, 2026

Artwork by Jenny Thorne. Design by Paddy Thorne. Mastered by Dan Schock. Compiled by Mark Darby. A Mighty Force Production 2026.

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Mighty Force Exeter, UK

Mighty Force was a record shop and label based in Exeter from 1991-95 when the label moved operations to London until 1999.
After a 20 year hiatus, the label became active again in July 2019.
We just release music we think is good.

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