Wassailing, an ancestor of both the modern house party and Christmas caroling, is an Olde English tradition. Basically, it involves walking from house to house and singing, begging for food and booze, and a chance to warm up. The 50 or so people who roamed Seattle's northbound neighborhoods today are keeping the wassailing tradition alive by singing, dancing, and drinking from noon until late.

By the time I catch up with them, they've finished up their house-to-house wassaults and are now at El Chupacabra eating a very nontraditional dinner of burritos and pomegranate-margaritas. They sing a few songs, from the obvious "Here We Come a-Wassailing" to a toasting tune about the elbow's deftness in getting beer from the table to the mouth. Everyone's drinking up for the final morris dance of the evening. According to Wikipedia, morris dancing originated in England around 1448. These dancers, though, say that Wikipedia—choke!—is wrong, and that it's far older than that.

We all head out to the sidewalk to watch a demonstration of a dance called "The Black Joke," which someone says is a euphemism for "ladies' private parts." Men wielding large sticks strap bells to their shins and dance around each other while fake fighting. Then the women dance with hankies to lute music. Cars honk and passersby stop and gape at what looks like a cross between a square dance and a hearty jig. "Morris dancing is all about fertility of crops and, specifically, the crops are barley, so, yes, it's all about beer," someone explains, adding, "It's a tradition that everyone can believe in."

Want to tell The Stranger that "new dancers are always welcome to look us up at www.mossyback.com" at your house party? E-mail the date, place, time, and party details to partycrasher@the-stranger.com.