Lynmouth Sailing Club Wassail 2026 at The Ancient Mariner

In case you’re not sure, a ‘wassail’ involves gathering at local orchards to scare away evil spirits to promote a good crop. You may wish to bring a pan and spoon, a whistle, or anything might that you can carry that makes a good racket to help shoo them away.

Last year featured a magnificently dressed Green Man and Woman – and some of their slightly less well appointed crew; please feel free to make as much (or little…!) effort to get into the spirit of the event as you like. There will probably be some green face paint floating around at the Mariner.

So why is it OLD Twelfth Night 17th Jan?…… The shift of Twelfth Night (celebrated on January 6th) to January 17th is related to changes in the calendar system over the centuries.

The Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, was the predominant calendar in Europe for over 1600 years. However, it had a small inaccuracy in that it was about 11 minutes too long each year. Over the centuries, these minutes added up, resulting in a noticeable discrepancy between the Julian calendar and the solar year.

To rectify this issue, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582. In this new calendar, ten days were skipped to realign the calendar year with the solar year. The change was implemented by moving the date forward by ten days—October 4, 1582, was followed by October 15, 1582.

In England, the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar occurred later, in 1752. By this time, the calendar was 11 days ahead of the solar year. To bring the calendar in line with the corrected system, the British Calendar Act of 1750 removed 11 days from September 1752. The day following September 2, 1752, was declared as September 14, 1752.

As a result of these calendar adjustments, the date of Old Twelfth Night shifted from January 6th (Twelfth Night) to January 17th in the Gregorian calendar