dled on
this joyful occasion. Our Christmas festival is nothing but a
continuation under a Christian name of this old solar festivity; for the
ecclesiastical authorities saw fit, about the end of the third or the
beginning of the fourth century, arbitrarily to transfer the nativity of
Christ from the sixth of January to the twenty-fifth of December, for
the purpose of diverting to their Lord the worship which the heathen had
hitherto paid on that day to the sun.[631]

[The Yule log is the Midwinter counterpart of the Midsummer bonfire.]

In modern Christendom the ancient fire-festival of the winter solstice
appears to survive, or to have survived down to recent years, in the old
custom of the Yule log, clog, or block, as it was variously called in
England.[632] The custom was widespread in Europe, but seems to have
flourished especially in England, France, and among the South Slavs; at
least the fullest accounts of the custom come from these quarters. That
the Yule log was only the winter counterpart of the Midsummer bonfire,
kindled within doors instead of in the open air on account of the cold
and inclement weather of the season, was pointed out long ago by our
English antiquary John Brand;[633] and the view is supported by the many
quaint superstitions attaching to the Yule log, superstitions which have
no apparent connexion with Christianity but carry their heathen origin
plainly stamped upon them. But while the two solstitial celebrations
were both festivals of fire, the necessity or desirability of holding
the winter celebration within doors lent it the character of a private
or domestic festivity, which contrasts strongly with the publicity of
the summer celebration, at which the people gathered on some open space
or conspicuous height, kindled a huge bonfire in common, and danced and
made merry round it together.

[The Yule log in Germany; the Yule log in Switzerland.]

Among the Germans the custom of the Yule log is known to have been
observed in the eleventh century; for in the year 1184 the parish priest
of Ahlen, in Muensterland, spoke of "bringing a tree to kindle the festal
fire at the Lord's Nativity."[634] Down to about the middle of the
nineteenth century the old rite was kept up in some parts of central
Germany, as we learn from an account of it given by a contemporary
writer. After mentioning the custom of feeding the cattle and shaking
the fruit-trees on Christmas night, to make them bear fruit, h