Green Day
| Tuesday 4 January, 2005 |
A Green Man being rowed down the Old Father, revellers on Bankside 'Wassailing!' an apple tree and a Jacobean play being performed by a cast including a Turkish Knight with references to trumping - it can only be the annual Bankside Twelfth Night celebrations.
WASSAIL!!!!
Followers of Forest '93 - '94 use to greet Darren Wassall with a similar chant, until the sheepshagger buggered off up the A52 and signed for Derby. There is no dictionary definition for the term (wassailing, not sheepshagging), but the Bankside interpretation is translated loosely as Happy New Year, Live Long and Prosper and isn't it about time we buggered off to the pub and got pissed on mulled wine?
WASSAIL!!!! ...and WASSAIL again I say.
Monday saw the biggest crowd down at Bankside for the Twelfth Night festivities since the now annual event emerged ten years ago. So what if the calendar dates are a little shaky and it is actually TENTH Night? Where else in London can you see a Green Man being toasted by the Mayor of Southwark?
 The Jolly Green Tease didn't disappoint |
And the Jolly Green Tease didn't disappoint. Underneath Southwark Bridge; Wassail! Past The Globe; Wassail! Er, hang on, where's he going? Underneath the Millennium Bridge, once, twice, three times a lady etc; Wassail! Wassail! Was... You get the hang of it now.
Hamming it up more than a collection of knobber North London luvvies eating spam sarnies, The Green Man circled around the river and arrived fashionably late. Something to do with inaccurate tide timings I think.
The biggest cheer of the afternoon was when the Wassailing Wonder stepped on dry land and didn't fall arse over tit. That would have put a bit of a Wassail in the works. The Holly and the Ivy greeted the Green God as he took to the steps outside The Globe. The theatre was Wassailed for the New Year, as was a small apple tree, although I'm not entirely sure why.
And then it was time for the Hey Nonny Nonny nonsense as the Bankside Mummers performed the Twelfth Night play. The plot basically involves King George slaying the Turkey Slayer, cheered on by Old Father Christmas and Jack Sparrow. Once again, I'm not entirely sure why.
You really couldn't hope to have a happier time on the day before officially the Worst Day of the Year, with back to work blues kicking in on the Tuesday. Management Teams, Corporate Identity and Business Synergy - it's all bollocks when you can look back at a man wearing holly on his head being rowed against the Thames tide, greeted by a Bankside crowd as though he was the fifth Beatle.
(click on thumbs to see large image)
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