Badnjak is a log that Ortodox Serbs traditionally burn on Christmas Eve or on the morning of the Christmas Day. Serbs pronounce it as “bu-dnyak”, and also call it veseljak, which means “the jovial one”. The log is most often a straight piece of an oak branch. The rituals around its cutting, bringing into a home, adorning and burning are complex. Also, they are very diverse across different regions of Serbia. Badnjak is most often cut at the dawn of the day before Christmas. The rituals are often accompanied by prayers for a good and abundant following year. In some regions, the badnjak is treated as a person, a guest, and is greeted with respect.
Similar rituals around the world
The Serbian Orthodox church explains that badnjak is a symbol of the fire that burned in the cave where Jesus Christ was born. Also, it is a symbol of the wood that the shepherds of Bethlehem brought there for it. Similar customs, however, existed long before Christianity. The ritual burning of a piece of wood during the winter was practiced among pagans all over Europe. People did it in order to secure a good year and remind people that the warmth of the sun would return. The burning of the log (called Yule log) was the central event of the Yuletide. It was an important festival observed by Germanic peoples in pagan times. People still practice it in its Christianised from all over Northern Europe as well as the Anglo-Saxon world.
Serbian tradition
The tradition does not seem to be dying out – in Serbia, almost every local church organizes the public badnjak ceremony. In Norway, the Yule log TV broadcast is extremely popular. Christians place Offerings below it, mostly in the form of wheat, wine, and honey. In modern times, however, badnjak is rarely burned inside the house, but more often outside, or is only present in the house symbolically, as an oak twig hanging above the door.
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