Yule Log

The Yule log, comes from the Yule festival, which gave rise to many other popular Christmas traditions. The word "yule" means wheel, a symbol representing the Sun, and the yule tide was a festivity celebrating the fact that the days and warmth would now start to get longer and warmer again. The yule log was a huge log (sometimes an entire tree) that was burned slowly throughout these days to herald the birth of this new sun. One end of the log would be placed in the fireplace with the rest sticking out into the room. The log was slowly fed into the fire over the course of several days until it was completely consumed.

Log-shaped cakes, called chocolate logs are now eaten at Christmas.

See also Yule Log (TV program)