Also called Christmas log, Christmas block, Yule clog, bûche de Noël, cacho fio, badnjak
A large log brought in with ceremony and burned on the hearth at Christmas or the winter solstice, with a piece saved to protect the house and light next year's log. The French bûche de Noël cake is its edible descendant.
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
Take care: Keep any fire in a proper hearth, fire pit or fireproof dish, with water or an extinguisher at hand; never leave flames unattended and check local burn bans. Burn only dry, untreated wood, keep a fire screen up, and make sure the saved piece is cold before you store it.
Herrick's poems are the first English evidence of a special Christmas log. Young men drag it in and are rewarded with drink, and the log is meant to bring good fortune. A separate poem tells the household to kindle the Christmas brand on Candlemas Eve and then lay it up again until the next Christmas.
Uses: Log, Ale, Saved brand
The eldest man of the family carries a log or fruit-tree branch three times around the house, then blesses it with wine before it is set alight, often together with saved ashes from last year's log. Elsewhere in France the custom was called bûche de Noël, a name now taken over by the rolled chocolate cake.
Uses: Fruit-tree log, Wine, Last year's ashes
A young oak sapling or branch, the badnjak, is cut on Christmas Eve morning, brought in with greetings, sprinkled with grain or wine, and placed on the fire. Its ashes might be strewn on fields or gardens for a fruitful year.
Uses: Young oak branch, Grain, Wine
The Christklotz was charred only slowly, then pulled from the fire and kept. When a thunderstorm came it was put back on the fire, in the belief that it guarded the house against lightning.
The oldest clear record of a special Christmas log is a German document of 1184, which entitled the manor of Ahlen to a whole tree for a festive Christmas Eve fire. A Dubrovnik statute of 1272 has sailors bringing a great log to the count on Christmas Eve. In English, Robert Herrick's Hesperides of 1648 gives the first account, and John Aubrey, writing between 1650 and 1687, is the first to use the phrase Yule log.
The idea that the log is a pagan sun charm comes from Henry Bourne in 1725, who guessed at a Saxon origin without evidence. Ronald Hutton and other historians treat that link as unproven. What is solid is the folk belief attached to the log: its saved piece guarded against fire and lightning, its ashes fed the fields, and its sparks were read for fortune. In France the custom faded as small stoves replaced open hearths, and the cake took its name.
The first visitor to cross the threshold after midnight on New Year sets the household's luck for the year, so they arrive with gifts of coal, bread, salt and drink.
The belief that fair weather on Candlemas, 2 February, means winter is not done, told through rhymes and through animals that look at their shadows: the badger in Germany, the bear in Hungary, the hedgehog in Ireland, and the groundhog in Pennsylvania.
On Twelfth Night, villagers in the English cider country gather around the oldest apple tree, soak toast in cider for the robins, pour cider on the roots, sing to the tree and make a racket to drive off bad spirits so the orchard bears well.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
