Section 7. The Midwinter Fires.
IF THE HEATHEN of ancient Europe celebrated, as we have good reason
to believe, the season of Midsummer with a great festival of fire, of which
the traces have survived in many places down to our own time, it is
natural to suppose that they should have observed with similar rites the
corresponding season of Midwinter; for Midsummer and Midwinter, or, in
more technical language, the summer solstice and the winter solstice, are
the two great turningpoints in the sun's apparent course through the sky,
and from the standpoint of primitive man nothing might seem more
appropriate than to kindle fires on earth at the two moments when the fire
and heat of the great luminary in heaven begin to wane or to wax. 1
In modern Christendom the ancient fire-festival of the winter solstice
appears to survive, or to have survived down to recent years, in the old
custom of the Yule log, clog, or block, as it was variously called in
England. The custom was widespread in Europe, but seems to have
flourished especially in England, France, and among the South Slavs; at
least the fullest accounts of the custom come from these quarters. That the
Yule log was only the winter counterpart of the midsummer bonfire, kindled
within doors instead of in the open air on account of the cold and
inclement weather of the season, was pointed out long ago by our English
antiquary John Brand; and the view is supported by the many quaint
superstitions attaching to the Yule log, superstitions which have no
apparent connexion with Christianity but carry their heathen origin plainly
stamped upon them. But while the two solstitial celebrations were both
festivals of fire, the necessity or desirability of holding the winter
celebration within doors lent it the character of a private or domestic
festivity, which contrasts strongly with the publicity of the summer
celebration, at which the people gathered on some open space or
conspicuous height, kindled a huge bonfire in common, and danced and
made merry round it together. 2
Down to about the middle of the nineteenth century the old rite of the
Yule log was kept up in some parts of Central Germany. Thus in the
valleys of the Sieg and Lahn the Yule log, a heavy block of oak, was fitted
into the floor of the hearth, where, though it glowed under the fire, it was
hardly reduced to ashes within a year. When the new log was laid next
year, the remains of the old one were ground to powder and strewed over
the fields during the Twelve Nights, which was supposed to promote the
growth of the crops. In some villages of Westphalia, the practice was to
withdraw the Yule log (Christbrand) from the fire so soon as it was slightly
charred; it was then kept carefully to be replaced on the fire whenever a
thunderstorm broke, because the people believed that lightning would not
strike a house in which the Yule log was smouldering. In other villages of
Westphalia the old custom was to tie up the Yule log in the last sheaf cut
at harvest. 3
In several provinces of France, and particularly in Provence, the custom
of the Yule log or tréfoir, as it was called in many places, was long
observed. A French writer of the seventeenth century denounces as
superstitious "the belief that a log called the tréfoir or Christmas brand,
which you put on the fire for the first time on Christmas Eve and continue
to put on the fire for a little while every day till Twelfth Night, can, if kept
under the bed, protect the house for a whole year from fire and thunder;
that it can prevent the inmates from having chilblains on their heels in
winter; that it can cure the cattle of many maladies; that if a piece of it be
steeped in the water which cows drink it helps them to calve; and lastly
that if the ashes of the log be strewn on the fields it can save the wheat
from mildew." 4
In some parts of Flanders and France the remains of the Yule log were
regularly kept in the house under a bed as a protection against thunder
and lightning; in Berry, when thunder was heard, a member of the family
used to take a piece of the log and throw it on the fire, which was believed
to avert the lightning. Again, in Perigord, the charcoal and ashes are
carefully collected and kept for healing swollen glands; the part of the
trunk which has not been burnt in the fire is used by ploughmen to make
the wedge for their plough, because they allege that it causes the seeds to
thrive better; and the women keep pieces of it till Twelfth Night for the sake
of their chickens. Some people imagine that they will have as many
chickens as there are sparks that fly out of the brands of the log when they
shake them; and others place the extinct brands under the bed to drive
away vermin. In various parts of France the charred log is thought to guard
the house against sorcery as well as against lightning. 5
In England the customs and beliefs concerning the Yule log used to be
similar. On the night of Christmas Eve, says the antiquary John Brand,
"our ancestors were wont to light up candles of an uncommon size, called
Christmas Candles, and lay a log of wood upon the fire, called a
Yule-clog or Christmas-block, to illuminate the house, and, as it were, to
turn night into day." The old custom was to light the Yule log with a
fragment of its predecessor, which had been kept throughout the year for
the purpose; where it was so kept, the fiend could do no mischief. The
remains of the log were also supposed to guard the house against fire and
lightning. 6
To this day the ritual of bringing in the Yule log is observed with much
solemnity among the Southern Slavs, especially the Serbians. The log is
usually a block of oak, but sometimes of olive or beech. They seem to
think that they will have as many calves, lambs, pigs, and kids as they
strike sparks out of the burning log. Some people carry a piece of the log
out to the fields to protect them against hail. In Albania down to recent
years it was a common custom to burn a Yule log at Christmas, and the
ashes of the fire were scattered on the fields to make them fertile. The
Huzuls, a Slavonic people of the Carpathians, kindle fire by the friction of
wood on Christmas Eve (Old Style, the fifth of January) and keep it
burning till Twelfth Night. 7
It is remarkable how common the belief appears to have been that the
remains of the Yule log, if kept throughout the year, had power to protect
the house against fire and especially against lightning. As the Yule log
was frequently of oak, it seems possible that this belief may be a relic of
the old Aryan creed which associated the oak-tree with the god of
thunder. Whether the curative and fertilising virtues ascribed to the ashes
of the Yule log, which are supposed to heal cattle as well as men, to
enable cows to calve, and to promote the fruitfulness of the earth, may not
be derived from the same ancient source, is a question which deserves to
be considered. 8
