Chicago Wassail

 

Dance you maidens, dance you young men

Be you full of joy and good cheer

Hark the piper and the harper

Merrily playing, greet the new year

 

Join the dance and join the chorus

See the Yule log burning high

How the fire leaps with gladness

Sparks like stars blaze in the sky

 

Wassail, wassail, health unto you!

May your days be merry!

Wassail, wassail, health unto you

All the years of your life!

 

Hail the hall’s lord, hail the lady

Hail their hospitality!

Let us gather all together

‘Round the table joyfully

 

Praise the bounty of the harvest

Laid in feast before us here

Gifts of earth and gifts of labor

Hunger’s bite we shall not fear

 

Wassail, wassail, health unto you!

May your days be merry!

Wassail, wassail, health unto you

All the years of your life!

 

Shortest days are now upon us,

And the ground is covered with snow,

And the nights are dark and bitter,

And the frozen winds do blow

 

But the sun shall rise tomorrow

Oh! The dawn is golden and bright!

See the sunbeams dancing, gleaming

At the coming of the light!

 

Wassail, wassail, health unto you!

May your days be merry!

Wassail, wassail, health unto you

All the years of your life!

 

 

Copyright © 2006 by Hilla Hamasdohtor (Pamela A. Wolff)