We make our own entertainment here you know

In a remote corner of the empire, under the fragile guise of an ancient apple tree blessing ceremony known as Wassailing, some hardy citizens prepare for enemy action...

It's good to keep these things alive I reckon although I have no idea why. For the uninitiated, wassailing is all about encouraging the apple trees to bring forth a good crop. It should take place on January 17th which used to be 12th night, so our local effort on the 14th was pretty close. The shooting, as I'm sure you've guessed, is to ward off the evil spirits: no pigeons were harmed in the making of this video (unfortunately - we're plagued by the bloody things.)

I think I've mentioned before that our local also hosts Morris dancing, mummers plays and hoodening. This last one is particularly interesting as it happens only in Kent, although it's not unrelated to rituals like the Padstow Hobby Horse (pronounced 'obby 'oss). In these days of globalisation, it's intriguing that some things stay stubbornly local. Another one to list in this category is the game of Bat and Trap which is so localised that it's only played within about a 10 mile radius of Canterbury. And if you think this is another esoteric pastime like wassailing, only dragged out once a year by a few anoraks, you're quite wrong: there are Bat and Trap leagues. Purely local pub games in other parts of the country are also available.

We all know how dull it is to go to different towns and see the same old shops and even travel round the world to some obscure location inhabited only by Neolithic pygmies, only to find a branch of McDs and adverts for Coke, so I think it's great that some things remain a truly local experience. Wassailing doesn't quite fit the bill as other apple-producing areas (e.g. Somerset) indulge in it but you won't find it in Yorkshire. The same goes for oast houses, which you will see everywhere in Kent but hardly at all anywhere else: our son's university friends were completely staggered that, in a quiz or something, he knew straight away what an oast house was - to them it was as obscure as a Tibetan monk's home.

So there you have it: now you know all about Wassailing and why your next holiday should be in Kent.  We may have our dodgy bits (I refer to Jeremy Clarkson's recent observations - provocative but accurate as ever) but you haven't lived until you've seen an oast house....or played Bat and Trap.

(I've got more video clips but it took an age to upload the one above so I may spare you these - for now...)