Titans-a-Wassailing

A Teen Titans Fan Fiction by Jacob McDonald

A-Wassailing
"You want me to go do what?" Cyborg looked over at Beast Boy from where he sat on the couch, flipping channels. Speedy sat next to him (a random visit to the Tower… he claimed it was just to annoy Robin) and looked just as baffled as Cy felt. Raven floated in her reading corner, ignoring all of them.

"We should go wassailing!" Beast Boy replied. He looked excited, "You know! Like the song!"

"What song?" Cyborg shook his head, "Did buy more of those mushrooms from the Chinese guy down on Market Street? Man, I told you he's shady…"

"Screw off Cy. It's a famous Christmas song and stuff. You know!" he started singing off key, "Here we go a-wassailing among the leaves so green!"

"No, wait…" Speedy spoke up, "Isn't that 'Here we go a-whistling?'"

"No, it's wassailing." Beast Boy replied, "Haven't you ever seen that claymation Christmas special with the California Raisins in it?"

"Dude, what?" Speedy got up and walked over to him. He felt Beast Boy's forehead, "You didn't buy any funny mushrooms, did you?"

"Dude, the California Raisins! They sing Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer all R&B style." The green changeling swatted the archer's hands away.

"Maybe it's a-whittling." Cyborg spoke up.

"Shut up man." Beast Boy waved him off, "You've never even heard the song before!"

"But I have, and I don't think it's wassailing." Speedy shook his head, "How do you wassail?"

"It's totally easy dude!" Beast Boy shouted, waving his arms, "You just… just…" he grew frustrated and called across the room, "Raven! Help me out here!"

Raven didn't even look up from her book as she replied, "There are three forms of Christmas/New Year celebration involving wassail, a beverage originally made of mulled ale, curdled cream, roasted apples, nuts, eggs and spices. In modern times the concoction has been replaced by eggnog or spiced cider, but the legend of its inception goes right back to Saxon times and is spelt out in Geoffrey of Monmouth'sHistory of the Kings of Britain and involves Rowena, daughter of Hengist, a Saxon mercenary, who presents the future King Vortigern with a bowl of mulled wine and the cheer "Waes Hael!", meaning good health. Vortigern, of course, falls in love with the beautiful Saxon maiden and marries her. Traditionally this drink and its more modern variant, Lamb's Wool, is served on New Year's Eve and Twelfth Night. Lambs Wool is heated cider spiced with sugar, nutmeg and ginger. Roast apples float on the surface and when the soft apple pulp bursts into the vat, it gives the drink a frothy or woolly look.

"The phrase Waes Hael eventually evolved into the single word that we know today as wassail. The use of wassailing to mean 'caroling' very likely descended from the custom of singing songs while drinking from the wassail bowl during the Christmas holidays.

"Wassailing takes place on January 7th and begins with the eating of hot cakes and the drinking of cider or a brew of cider, brandy, ale and spices drunk hot from a 'wassail bowl'. This is followed by a visit to an apple orchard, where the apple trees are wassailed to insure a fine crop of cider apples in the summer.

"A cake or some other food gift is placed at the foot of the tree, and splashed with cider. Then the revelers shoot among the branches to frighten off evil spirits, pots and pans are banged and a special wassail song is sung.

"The wassail procession eventually left the orchards and became a strolling Christmas party with caroling, visiting different houses and being invited in for punch." She looked up from her book finally and blinked at them, "Since the old pagan rituals have pretty much died out, we could go Wassailing at any time. All we need to do is sing the song and people will know what we're doing."

The three boys stared back at her with their mouths hanging open. Raven stared back for a moment, then shut her book and stood up. "So… are we going then?" And she walked past them to the kitchen, "I'll heat up some cider. Beast Boy, find a big enough bowl for all of us to drink out of."

"Um… okay…" he walked into the kitchen after her.

Speedy and Cyborg looked at each other with blank expressions and shrugged. Just then the doors to the elevator opened and Robin stepped into the room, Starfire floating after him, "Hey Cy. Speedy. Didn't know you were here."

"Came by for the party." Speedy replied with a grin.

"What party?" Robin frowned, "You're not trying to smuggle liquor into the Tower again are you?"

"Naw." Cy slapped Robin's shoulder and the Boy Wonder stumbled, "We're all going Wassailing tonight!"

"Wait… what?" he looked confused.

Starfire clapped her hands, "Glorious!" she laughed, then paused and looked over at Speedy, "Please friend… what is 'wassailing?'"

Cyborg, Speedy and Beast Boy all called, "Raven!"

"There are three forms of Christmas/New Year celebration involving wassail…"

Note – The information on the wassail celebration in this chapter was taken directly from Letters to Santa (http://www. operationlettertosanta. com/Traditions/Wassailing. htm) and Time Travel Britain (http://www .timetravel-britain. com/05/Dec/wassail. shtml). Just copy and past the url's to your browser and take out the spaces to visit the sites. Very enjoyable reads if you want a little more background.

Stay tuned...

-Jake