The ceremonial of the Yule log is
distinguished from that of the other fire-festivals by the privacy
and domesticity which characterise it; but this distinction may well
be due simply to the rough weather of midwinter, which is apt not
only to render a public assembly in the open air disagreeable, but
also at any moment to defeat the object of the assembly by
extinguishing the all-important fire under a downpour of rain or a
fall of snow. Apart from these local or seasonal differences, the
general resemblance between the fire-festivals at all times of the
year and in all places is tolerably close. And as the ceremonies
themselves resemble each other, so do the benefits which the people
expect to reap from them. Whether applied in the form of bonfires
blazing at fixed points, or of torches carried about from place to
place, or of embers and ashes taken from the smouldering heap of
fuel, the fire is believed to promote the growth of the crops and
the welfare of man and beast, either positively by stimulating them,
or negatively by averting the dangers and calamities which threaten
them from such causes as thunder and lightning, conflagration,
blight, mildew, vermin, sterility, disease, and not least of all
witchcraft.
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