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.
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.
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