La bûche de Noël

Yule log rituals were between 12th and 19th century the most important part of Christmas celebration in France. Pic: "Tradition of the Great Christmas log. Drawing by Léon Lhermitte printed in Le Monde from the 1st of January 1884... 

 
The whole family went to to the woods to cut the Yule log. It had to be a big thick oak or beach trunk that could burn for 12 days (from Christmas to Kings) without going out...

After choosing and cutting the Yule log, it was decorated with leaves and ribbons and carried home. There it was blessed by the head of the family and then lit by the youngest and the oldest in the household...

The Yule log had to burn continuously for 12 days and all the ashes and charcoals were carefully kept and then ceremonially deposited somewhere on the family land...

These ashes and charcoals from the old Yule log were then brought in next year and placed on the floor of the fireplace before new Yule log was brought in and lit. This was symbolically connecting the old and the new solar year, the old and the new fire of the sun...

If a family didn't have their own forest where they could cut their own Yule log, they were given Yule log by their neighbours...

As soon as the night fell, people took great care to extinguish their hearths, then went to the church to light torches from the fire that burned in the church. A priest blessed the torches and people then brought this blessed fire home to rekindle the house hearths...

In some parts of France, like Berry, charcoals from the #Yule log were kept under the bed of the oldest male in the family. During thunderstorms, a bit was thrown into the fire "and that was enough to protect the family from thunder"...

This is very interesting. In Berry the Yule log had to be oak, the tree of the thunder gods. Which would explain why Yule log charcoals would protect from thunder. This belief that the Yule log charcoal protected from thunder was recored by P. Sébillot in his 1886 "Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne". He says that: "In Brittany the tison de Noël (Yule log) is a protection against lightning and its ashes are put in wells to keep the water good...

In some parts of France, wine was poured over the Yule log before it was lit, and fruit and nuts were placed next to it...The same kind of sacrifices to the Yule log were recorded in Serbia...

You can read about Serbian Yule log customs in my posts "Badnjak" and "First footer"

Frederic Mistral (1830–1914), Occitan writer and lexicographer of the Occitan language, who received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature talks about Yule log customs from his childhood in his Memoirs:

W. Mannhardt, in his book “Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstämme” printed in 1875 says this about Yule log customs from France:

I particularly like the magic use of the Yule log charcoal and ash. It shows that this custom has pre-Christian root...The Yule (Oak) log was "Sky god materialised". Serbs definitely saw Yule log as such and directly addressed the log and asked it for protection and help...

It is funny that today most French people don't know anything about this...

Anyway, I wish everyone who celebrate Christmas Eve today bright burning Yule log. May next year bring you and your family prosperity, luck, happiness and health...