The Eighth Day of Truth - The Yule Log
A cozy fire on the eve of christmas, such a nice warm tradition. But it's origins are much older than even the holiday that it is being used to celebrate. The Celtic pagans have celebrated the winter solstice for ages before the christian faith started. This holiday was known as Yule. The yule log would be a very large log that had to be cut by the burner, never purchased. The log would sometimes be decorated with holly and burned all night. This would indeed have to have been a rather large log to burn through the longest night of the year. There would also traditionally be a piece of the log left over at dawn, which would be kept in the house until the next yule for good luck. That piece would be used as kindling for the next year's log. By the fourth century the christians had adopted burning a large log overnight on christmas. The original meaning has long since been lost and modern people often have no idea why they traditionally burn a log overnight.
When you light your log on fire this year, remember that it's a little more than warmth that you are bringing into your home, but also one of the very first traditions that the christians adopted.
And now you know.
A cozy fire on the eve of christmas, such a nice warm tradition. But it's origins are much older than even the holiday that it is being used to celebrate. The Celtic pagans have celebrated the winter solstice for ages before the christian faith started. This holiday was known as Yule. The yule log would be a very large log that had to be cut by the burner, never purchased. The log would sometimes be decorated with holly and burned all night. This would indeed have to have been a rather large log to burn through the longest night of the year. There would also traditionally be a piece of the log left over at dawn, which would be kept in the house until the next yule for good luck. That piece would be used as kindling for the next year's log. By the fourth century the christians had adopted burning a large log overnight on christmas. The original meaning has long since been lost and modern people often have no idea why they traditionally burn a log overnight.
When you light your log on fire this year, remember that it's a little more than warmth that you are bringing into your home, but also one of the very first traditions that the christians adopted.
And now you know.
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