Suspension.

As traditional and familiar as most any English Christmas carol, the song is among the season's more anachronistic, an evocation of a holiday custom that pretty much puzzles modern celebrants: wassailing.

Here we come a-wassailing 
Among the leaves so green; 
Here we come a-wand'ring 
So fair to be seen. 
Love and joy come to you, 
And to you your wassail too; 
And God bless you and send you 
a happy New Year.

Wassailing? What's wassailing?

The term has evolved in English for more than a millennium, from its origins as a simple greeting, to its use as a toast in ritualized drinking, to its absorption into holiday customs rooted in notions of social propriety and the intentional suspension thereof.

Read the rest at Colonial Williamsburg.

Wassailing in Old Hampshire ...