Or maybe the Irish and the Vikings................
The custom of burning the Yule Log goes back to, and before, medieval
times. It was originally a Nordic tradition. Yule is the name of the
old Winter Solstice festivals in Scandinavia and other parts of northern
Europe, such as Germany.
The Yule Log was originally an entire tree, that was carefully chosen
and brought into the house with great ceremony. The largest end of the
log would be placed into the fire hearth while the rest of the tree
stuck out into the room! The log would be lit from the remains of the
previous year's log which had been carefully stored away and slowly fed
into the fire through the Twelve Days of Christmas.
It was considered important that the re-lighting process was carried
out by someone with clean hands. Nowadays, of course, most people have
central heating so it is very difficult to burn a tree!
In Provence (in France),
it is traditional that the whole family helps to cut the log down and
that a little bit is burnt each night. If any of the log is left after
Twelfth Night, it is kept safe in the house until the next Christmas to
protect against lightning! In some parts of Holland, this was also done,
but the log had to be stored under a bed! In some eastern European
countries, the log was cut down on Christmas Eve morning and lit that
evening.
In Cornwall (in the UK),
the log is called 'The Mock'. The log is dried out and then the bark is
taken off it before it comes into the house to be burnt. Also in the
UK, barrel makers (or Coopers as barrel makers were traditionally
called) gave their customers old logs that they could not use for making
barrels for Yule logs. (My surname is Cooper, but I don't make barrels!
My Great Grandfather did own a walking stick factory though!)
The custom of the Yule Log spread all over Europe and different kids
of wood are used in different countries. In England, Oak is traditional;
in Scotland, it is Birch; while in France, it's Cherry. Also, in
France, the log is sprinkled with wine, before it is burnt, so that it
smells nice when it is lit.
In Devon and Somerset in the UK, some people have a very large bunch
of Ash twigs instead of the log. This comes from a local legend that
Joseph, Mary and Jesus were very cold when the shepherds found them on
Christmas Night. So the shepherds got some bunches of twigs to burn to
keep them warm.
In some parts of Ireland, people have a large candle instead of a log and this is only lit on New Year's Eve and Twelfth Night.
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