Customs past

12:51pm Friday 21st December 2001

YULE LOG: The Yule log originates from Scandinavian pagan festivals which spread around Europe during the Viking conquests. The log would be taken home and burnt during all 12 days of Christmas. The remains were kept as a lucky charm. Certain people were excluded from the lighting of the Yule Log, including those with squints and women with bare feet.

LEWD CUSTOM: The Christmas pudding started life as a 14th century porridge called frumenty, which was eaten as a fasting dish. In 1664, the puritans banned it as a "lewd custom", "unfit for God fearing people". But it soon returned to popularity.

STOCKINGS: The tradition of hanging stockings comes from St Nicholas leaving his very first gifts of gold coins in the stockings of three poor girls who needed the money for their wedding dowries. The girls had hung their stockings to dry by the fire.

SWAN AND BOAR: The Christmas favourite, turkey, only appeared on Christmas menus around 1650 after the European colonisation of North America. Before this, the popular dishes included peacock, boar and swan.

PAGAN HOLIDAY: Christian leaders in 336 AD set the date of December 25 in an attempt to eclipse a popular pagan holiday in Rome (Saturnalia), celebrating the winter solstice.

PINE TREES: The Christmas tree originates from 1800s Germany and spread to England and America through Pennsylvanian German immigrants.

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