Yule Log

 

 

The traditional English Christmas included the burning of a massive Yule log that had been ceremoniously dragged in by many hands and placed on the herth on Christmas Eve. The mundane reason for the custom was to keep chilly English houses warm, but there was  a rutualistic aspect to it as well. "Yule" (in Anglo-Saxon, geol) was the winter solstice period in pagan England, and the burning of a huge log at this time was part of the ceremonies that honored the return of the sun. In a classic instance of sympathetic magic, the ancient Celtic and Teutonic peoples would light the log as both a register and an assurance of heavenly light. The ceclical nature of the custom was enshrined in the latter folk belief that each year's Yule log should be lighted from the relit remnant of the last year's.

 

 

Other folk beliefs attended the log ceremony. T. G. Crippen mentions, for example, the notion that girls with unwashed hands who touched the log would cause the fire to burn dully and the more common superstition that all who helped drag in the behemoth would be protectedfrom witchcraft for a year. There was also the strange practice of drawing a chalk man on the log before it was put to the flame - a recollection, perhaps, of human sacrifice.