A centuries-old outdoor folklore ceremony featuring singing, dancing, costumes and crop-blessings, the wassail is having a pandemic-era revival – with witchy reinventions

On a January night in the tiny Herefordshire village of Eardisland, a crowd of hundreds is being led to an orchard down a muddy country lane. Their leaders wear tall hats, garlanded with fruit, feathers and flowers; their faces are a damp, mossy, green; their ankles jingle with bells. It is very dark: the only light comes from a crisp, crescent moon and the flaming torches that men, women and children hold in their hands.

The scene may sound sinister, but there is joy in the air at this crop-blessing wassail, a midwinter folklore ceremony, usually in apple-producing counties, involving singing, dancing and other folk customs. At Eardisland, the Leominster morris – they in the extravagant hats, plus flowery jackets made from old bedsheets and curtains – pour cider made from last year’s apples on to tree roots, hang toasted bread on tree branches to tempt the spirits, and light fires to represent renewal and the coming spring sun. The mood is jolly. “I’ll hopefully not set my leg on fire,” says the announcer, Josh Johnson, to laughter, before stamping flames out.