Merry Christmas! Now go burn some stuff…

From Wikipedia:

The first mention of the Yule log in the British Isles is a written account by the clergyman Robert Herrick, from the 1620s or 1630s. Herrick called the tradition a “Christmas log” and said that it was brought into the farmhouse by a group of males, who were then rewarded with free beer from the farmer’s wife. Herrick claimed that the fire used to burn the log was always started with a remnant from the log that had been burned in the previous year’s festivities. He also said that the log’s role was primarily one of bringing prosperity and protection from evil – by keeping the remnant of the log all the year long the protection was said to remain across the year.

In traditional British rural culture, the Yule log was not only seen as a magical protective amulet, and there are many reports of rivalries occuring between members of a community as to who had the largest log.

But wait, there’s more…

Finally, the best Yule Log of ‘em all: The Stephen Colbert Book-Burning Yule Log.

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