I was helping Chasity come up with a word of the day for our Toastmasters meeting today (Christmas themed) and came across a word that made me want to do some research a-la-Shannon.

The word I came across was wassail. The definition (thanks to Microsoft Bookshelf):
was·sail (wŏsʹəl, wŏ-sālʹ) noun

1.      a. A salutation or toast given in drinking someone's health or as an expression of good will at a festivity. b. The drink used in such toasting, commonly ale or wine spiced with roasted apples and sugar.

2.      A festivity characterized by much drinking.

Which to me sounded very medieval. I was actually picturing in my head our dinner in Las Vegas at the Knights of the Roundtable thing. We all had to raise our glasses and "hurrah" every now and then. I guess technically we were wassailing. But the origin is indeed Middle English. Specifically,

[Middle English, contraction of wæshæil, be healthy, from Old Norse ves heill : ves imperative sing. of vera, to be + heill, healthy.],

as per Microsoft Bookshelf. So basically it means 'to sing of being healthy'. The drinking part…

On Wikipedia, here's what I found:
Wassail is a hot, spiced punch often associated with winter celebrations of northern Europe, usually those connected with the Christmas holiday such as Christmas, New Year's and Twelfth Night. Particularly popular in Germanic countries, the term itself is a contraction of the Old English toast wæs þu hæl, or "be thou hale!" (i.e., "be in good health"). Alternate expressions predating the term, with approximately the same meaning, include both the Old Norse ves heill and Old English wes hál.

And they go on to talk about recipes and such (basically fruit juices simmered with mulling spices (cloves?) and possibly 'fortified' with some brandy or other such spirits.

 Maybe at our Christmas celebration this year we should wassail with some wassail (maybe even make a wassailing bowl) and sing this traditional carol the Gloucestershire Wassail dating back to the Middle Ages. Here's the first stanza:

Wassail! wassail! all over the town,
Our toast it is white and our ale it is brown;
Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree;
With the wassailing bowl, we'll drink to thee.