Toasting the New Year

Traditionally, the New Year is welcomed in by raising a glass of champagne and offering a toast. Toast? Lightly burned bread?

In the Middle Ages people sometimes did put a piece of toasted bread into their wine or other drink. But why did they do that? And how did it turn into the modern custom of saying a few words before drinking at special occasions, no bread involved?

Toasting as a way of preserving bread originated in pre-historic times. Laying a slab of bread on a hot stone next to a fire was the earliest method of extending its palatability. Pouring or splashing wine, or some like beverage, on an altar to honor or placate a god likewise has an ancient origin. By Homer's time, lifting a cup to drink to someone's health had become common practice. Ulysses drinks to the health of Achilles in the "Odyssey," though the practice was not yet called toasting.

It was the English tradition of wassailing that brought the toast and beverage together. The term "wassail" is a Middle English contraction of the Anglo-Saxon "wæs hæil" meaning "be healthy."

In pre-Christian times, the wassail tradition saw townspeople traipsing into apple groves with much singing and sharing of alcohol. An important aspect of the festivities was the tying of pieces of toast to the tree branches or placing a wine-soaked chunk of toast at the tree's roots. This activity was supposed to drive away evil spirits and keep the tree healthy, encouraging it to bear a good crop of apples.

Over the years, the wassail tradition divided into three different forms. The orchard blessing festival continued, gradually including all fruit trees, other agricultural crops and even beehives. The ritual performed in Devonshire, for instance, could be considered an early form of toasting. An incantation was repeated three times, each time followed by a drink:

"Here's to thee, old apple-tree,

Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow!

And whence thou mayst bear apples enow! [enough]

Hats full! Caps full!

Bushel-bushel-sacks full,

And my pockets full too! Huzza!"

Another variation of the festival abandoned the trees but kept the apples in the form of cider. Spices, honey and sometimes an egg was mulled into a wassail beverage. Instead of gamboling around the orchard, groups of commoners carried the wassail bowl around the village singing merry songs as they went from door to door. According to some versions, those who opened their doors responded by giving food, drinks or money to the carolers. Other versions say the wassail bowl was offered to the door openers and everyone shared a drink. Another version has the revelers themselves drinking the wassail as they went singing along.

The carol, "Hear we come a wassailing..." is a remnant of that form of the festival. Nowadays the foreign-sounding word "wassailing" is often replaced with "caroling."

The nobility celebrated the health-bestowing festival in a more genteel way. They too created a mulled wassail beverage and placed a slice of toast on top. The beverage was often served in a special, large, wassail bowl. The drink was first brought to the dignitary hosting the celebration. He took the bowl, raised it high and cried "Wassail!" i.e., "be of good health." Those in the hall replied, "Drinc Hail!" i.e., "drink and be healthy." The host accordingly took a drink from the bowl and passed it the next person. That person repeated the toast, was bidden to drink in his turn and passed the bowl to the next. Notice the focus of the celebration has moved from the health of the tree to that of the imbibers.

As for the toast floating on top, it often was a spiced bread or a fruit bread that had gone stale. Adding it to a beverage both improved the taste of the drink and extended the life of the bread. By the sixteenth century, it became quite common to include toast in a jug of ale or a small piece in a goblet of wine. In "The Merry Wives of Windsor" Shakespeare has Falstaff bid his servant, "Go fetch me a quart of sack [wine]; put a toast in it."

While wassailing continued to be a part of Christmas, or more specifically Twelfth Night festivities, the term also began to be used more generally, encompassing any occasion when drinking and wishing good health were involved. In a celebration in which a particular person was honored, after praise had been duly heaped upon him and everyone had drunk to his health, the honoree was given the special honor of consuming the alcohol-saturated toast at the bottom.

As wine, beer and ale ceased to need spiced or fruited bread to improve the flavor, the actual piece of toast was dispensed with. The term "toast," however, was retained and came to encompass both the praise and well-wishes and the follow-up drink.

If you are looking for a toast to hail the new year, here are a few worth considering:

• Here's to a bright New Year, and a fond farewell to the old; here's to the things that are yet to come, and to the memories that we hold.

• In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, but never in want.

• May your troubles be less, and your blessings be more. And nothing but happiness come through your door.

• May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live.

And here's a famous one from Benjamin Franklin: "Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man."