​It may involve soaking toast in booze and shooting at trees, but we can count on a decent cider harvest this year.

The ancient tradition of wassailing took place in villages throughout Somerset over the weekend.

Dating back more than 1,500 years, wassailing has long been an important event in the calendar for people in Somerset because it is believed to boost the harvest of apples for cider.

The purpose of wassailing is to awake the cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit in the autumn.

During the ceremony, toast soaked in cider is placed in the branches of the tree and cider is poured on to the roots of the tree by the Wassail Queen. Shots are then fired through the branches to ward off evil spirits and warm cider is passed around the gathered crowd in a Wassail mug while traditional wassail songs and chants are sung.

For people living in one Somerset village, it is believed the ancient tradition is working.

Residents in Priston, near Bath, have been holding the annual event for the past three years, with more and more people turning out to enjoy the age-old ceremony and reports of bumper crops of apples during harvest.

John Wilkinson, from Priston Jubilee Morris Men, said: “The land owner has said he has been getting more and more apples since we started wassailing three years ago, so it looks like it might be working. We decided start holding the event in Priston because we often found we were Morris dancing at ceremonies in other parts of the county and thought we should bring the tradition back home to our own village.”

This year, 12-year-old Matlida Ormiston took on the duties of Wassail Queen as fingers were kept firmly crossed for another successful year.

In Kilmersdon more than 100 people joined together in the community harvest to enjoy the ancient tradition.

Resident Martin Horler has been leading a wassail ceremony in the village every year since 2002 when he decided to resurrect the tradition for a group of friends.

The event’s popularity has grown, with visitors from as far as Germany joining locals around the apple tree.

Mr Horler said: “It is a lovely English tradition that should be celebrated. It is part of our heritage. There is an ancient custom called Was Hael, dating from pre-Christian times. We think it was Saxon. It’s meant to give apple trees a good season.”

Nine-year-old Tia Cox from Kilmersdon was the Wassail Queen.