In pictures: Here we come a-wassailing Published duration 5 January 2017

image copyright Matt Cardy / Getty Images

Members of the Leominster Morris have celebrated the ancient custom of wassailing, said to prepare orchards for the new year, blessing trees with a good crop and frightening away evil spirits.

image copyright Matt Cardy / Getty Images

image copyright Matt Cardy / Getty Images

Morris dancers and mummers led a procession to an orchard near Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, to perform the ceremony, which involves placing a cider-soaked piece of Christmas cake on the branches of an apple tree and sprinkling cider around its roots, dancing and singing the Wassail Song.

image copyright Matt Cardy / Getty Images

image copyright Matt Cardy / Getty Images

image copyright Matt Cardy / Getty Images

image copyright Matt Cardy / Getty Images

The term Wassail comes from the Anglo-Saxon phrase "waes hael", and, originally, the wassail was a drink made with mulled ale and passed round in the communal wassail cup.

image copyright Matt Cardy / Getty Images

image copyright Matt Cardy / Getty Images

Traditionally, wassailing was on Old Twelfth Night, 17 January, but nowadays it is often earlier in line with the Gregorian calendar.

image copyright Matt Cardy / Getty Images

image copyright Matt Cardy / Getty Images

All photographs by Matt Cardy / Getty Images