Question by Rusty Tater ©: Will you celebrate this Christmas with a Yule Log or an Ashen Faġġot?
The Ashen Faġġot is a very old Westcountry tradition that at one time was widely seen on Dartmoor. The custom is considered to date back to Saxon times, however it is thought to have come from Scandinavia who at their feast of 'joul' would burn huge bonfires in honour of their god Thor. The ash tree was regarded as the 'tree of life' in Norse mythology. Sabine Baring Gold in his novel 'Glámr' describes an early instance of the tradition:
"Christmas Eve! How different in Saxon England! There the great ashen faġġot is rolled along the hall with torch and taper; the mummers dance with their merry jingling bells; the boar's head with gilded tusks, "bedecked with holly and rosemary," is brought in by the steward to a flourish of trumpets."
The custom was that a faġġot (bundle of ash sticks) was bound with nine green lengths of ash bands or 'beams', preferably all from the same tree. The 'Christianised version of the use of ash was that it was the wood that Mary used to light the fire in order to wash Jesus. In Romany lore it was thought that Jesus was born in a field and that he was kept warm by the heat of an ash fire. The holly, ivy and pine trees hid the infant and were allowed to keep their foliage all year where as the oak and the ash showed where he was hiding and they were condemned to die every winter. On Christmas Eve the faggot was put on a fire that had been lit with the remnants of the previous years faggot. Everybody would then gather around the hearth and eagerly watch it burn. Any unmarried woman that was present would each chose one of the green bands and it was believed that the woman who selected the first band it ignite and break would be the next to get married. In some places, every time a binding band broke a a quart of cider would be passed around and a toast would be made. It was believed that any household that did not burn the ashen faggot would be in for a years worth of bad luck and misfortune.
http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/christ_fagg.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashen_faggot
Best answer:
Answer by Flower
Interesting Tater chip but I prefer a vibrator for xmas
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