Dec 17th 2019
The custom of burning the Yule Log goes back to, and before, medieval times. It was originally a Nordic tradition. Yule is the name of the old Winter Solstice festivals in Scandinavia and other parts of northern Europe.
The Yule Log was originally an entire tree, that was carefully chosen and brought into the house with great ceremony. The largest end of the log would be placed into the fire hearth while the rest of the tree stuck out into the room! The log would be lit from the remains of the previous year's log which had been carefully stored away and slowly fed into the fire through the 12 days of Christmas. It was considered important that the re-lighting process was carried out by someone with clean hands. Nowadays, of course, most people have central heating so it is very difficult to burn a tree!
In Provence, France it is tradition that the whole family helps to cut the log down and that a little bit is burnt each night. If any of the log is left after Twelfth Night, it is kept safe in the house until the next Christmas to protect against lightning! In some parts of The Netherlands, this was also done, but the log had to be stored under a bed! In some eastern European countries, the log was cut down on Christmas Eve morning and lit that evening.
In Cornwall, UK the log is called 'The Mock'. The log is dried out and then the bark is taken off it before it comes into the house to be burnt. Also in the UK, barrel makers gave their customers old logs that they could not use for making barrels for Yule logs.
The custom of the Yule Log spread all over Europe and different kinds of wood are used in different countries. In England, Oak is traditional; in Scotland, it is Birch; while in France, it's Cherry. Also, in France, the log is sprinkled with wine, before it is burnt, so that it smells nice when it is lit.
In Devon and Somerset in the UK, some people have a very large bunch of Ash twigs instead of the log. This comes from a local legend that Joseph, Mary and Jesus were very cold when the shepherds found them on Christmas Night. So the shepherds got some bunches of twigs to burn to keep them warm.
So I had a plan today
And surprisingly got ahead!!!!
I spent 3 hours this morning
Cleaning, straightening and organizing
What I vaguely remembered as
My beautiful craft room!
I also did a bunch of laundry.
By noon I had everything back in place
And only had the office left to work out.
Mom picked me up moments
After I finished and we were off
To Strathroy for a couple pick ups
And a pit stop at Hollandia for some
Extra-unnecessary cookies!
Home by 2:30 and off to grab
Some DVD's I bought
and home for work clothes
And make supper (venison meatballs
And penne pasta with fresh bread).
I washed the dishes ap
And got out some labels.
On them I wrote the names of everyone
That I bought gifts for
And set them out on the counters.
This cleaned the office out,
Emptied the gift shelves
And effectively gave me an idea
About what I still needed.
A few extra gifts found
And then I donated the tons of items
I have collected over the years
That have no apparent recipients!!!!
By 6pm
I had the sewing machine set up
And helped make 4 Christmas gifts.
By 8pm
I was setting up a wrapping station.
I have always wanted beautiful gifts
Under the tree,
So I am using handmade paper
Fancy bows and handmade tags.
By 10pm
Which showed up fast!!!!!
I was half wrapped.
But tomorrow is another day
To get that all finished.
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