Christmas is a time of year to celebrate family and holiday traditions. The season has a lot going for it, from putting out cookies for Santa to decorating the Christmas tree or setting up a Christmas nativity scene. And although it is not one of the traditions rooted in Spanish customs, there is another that is quite popular in Anglo-Saxon countries. It is about the Yule log, of which most do not know the real story behind it or why it has become another of the Christmas traditions. This is the story behind the Yule lo or Christmas log burning and what its origin is.
Although the Christmas log is for many people a dessert that is now commonly found on the holiday tables of many homes, especially in the United States, the origins of the original tradition of the Christmas log go back centuries to Scandinavia. Interestingly, the Norwegian tradition did not include eating a cake.
For centuries, celebrants celebrated Yule, a festival that commemorates the winter solstice but also celebrates family. The celebration included the burning of a large log to welcome the sun. It marked the shortest day of the year and the subsequent return of longer days.
With the arrival of Christianity, some traditions among the religious festival and the pagan festivals merged (hence Yuletide which is like the Germanic Christmas between December 23rd and January 1st and our Christmas are often considered interchangeable terms these days). The two distinctive holidays are often associated, although the names are associated with very different belief systems.
When burning logs around Christmas time, most families used a tree and placed the wide end of the log in the fireplace first. During the 12 days of Christmas, the Christmas log would continue to burn as the families moved the tree further into the fire.
According to the tradition, the Christmas log would start burning on Christmas day and run until the fifth of Januaryalso known as Twelfth Night.
According to some ancient writings and what experts know, the concept of Yule goes far beyond the old Germanic record that we have mentioned to you, even long before the arrival of the Christians, the first “clear” references to the tradition appear in the 17th century and therefore it is not clear from where or when exactly the custom spread. However, it has been seen that for a long time, the custom may have much older and diverse originsextending from the customs observed in Germanic paganism.
Yule events were generally considered to be centered around Midwinter, and feasting, drinking, and sacrifice were involved. The scholar Rudolf Simek says that this pagan festival of Yule was of a religious character and that the character of the Germanic festival of Yule cannot be proved, although it is assumed that it was intended for the cult of the dead and in devotion to our ancestors. this celebration was celebrated for the ancient ages of stone and bronze from Western Europe. Some of these old Christmas customs and Christmas log traditions are still reflected in the classic Christmas ham.
Regional Variations of the Yule Log
Scholars have observed many similarities between the Yule log and some popular customs that are only known in some areas of the west of England. First recorded in the early 19th century and as late as at least 2003 in some areas, they are associated with a variety of folk beliefs.
The term “Christmas registry” is not the only term used to refer to the custom. It was commonly called “Yule Clog” in North East England, and was also called “Yule Block” in the Midlands and West Country and “Gule Block” in Lincolnshire. In Cornwall, the name “Stock of the Mock” was found.
The names of the indigenous non-English people in the British Isles were known as “Boncyff Nadolig” or “Blocyn and Gwyliau” in Wales, Yeel Carline in Scotland, and Bloc na Nollaig in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Ireland.
The custom of burning a Christmas log for several nights beginning on Christmas Eve was also widespread in some areas of northern France, where the usual term is known as “bûche de noël”, which is believed to come from a custom that forced peasants to bring a log to their lord. Prayers were made while the trunk was lit in some areas of Brittany and in the area of Provence, the custom can be seen today in some areas and is called “cacho fio” (blessing of the trunk): the trunk, or branch of a fruit tree, is paraded for the first time three times around the house of the family’s grandfather, then it was blessed with wine and the custom was to light it together with the ashes saved from the previous year’s registry.
In the balkan area They also have a similar ritual called “pull logs” where the people of a village dragged a large log throughout the village to finally burn it. The Serbs are others who have a similar tradition, in which they burn an oak log.
In Spain, it is the Catalans who have a very similar tradition, where the “Tió”, which is a magical trunk with a smiling face that lives in the forest, is taken home and cared for before Christmas. The children sing and hit him with sticks, cover him with a blanket to make Tió defecate sweet nougats and small gifts.
And this is one of the oldest and least known Christmas traditionssurely you have never heard of the tradition of the Yule trunk and surely now you will find one of the ones you know today.