Harmony Inn Yule Log tradition celebrates the season
HARMONY — A jam-packed Harmony Inn took turns placing holly sprigs, attached with all the “negativity” from the past year, into a fire pit with burning Yule logs to “send off last year’s worries” going into the new year.
The annual Yule log ceremony, held on Tuesday, Dec. 16, is meant to bring people together and celebrate moving forward into the new year, said Bob McCafferty, owner of the Harmony Inn.
“Everybody’s so busy shopping and getting work done. For us, I love the simplest ways of looking at things, Yule log is that. When you look at everything as a cycle, and everything comes back in to itself,” McCafferty said. “Dec. 21, we all get an extra minute of daylight moving forward.”
The burning of holly sprigs was one of multiple traditions to bid farewell to the previous year and welcome the new one the Harmony Inn crowd took part in.
Yule begins each year on the winter solstice and ends with the solar new year, running from Dec. 21 to Jan. 1 this season. It began as a Nordic and Germanic tradition to honor renewal and rebirth heading into the new year.
Yule is traditionally commemorated with Yule logs and a feast. At the Harmony Inn Tuesday night, the crowd packed in the bar and on the outside patio to celebrate with beer and Christmas carols.
The crowd made a toast to the trees, cheering for growth and resilience in the year ahead. Children also got to meet a magical visitor, Santa of the Woods.
While beer was consumed and Christmas lights flickered, the Eintracht Maennerchor, a German choir group from New Castle, led the crowd in classic carols like “Deck the Halls” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” They also sang several German Christmas songs, along with the bagpipes.
“We’ve been doing this for years. We go all over the place. We always love coming here,” said Dan Forsberg, director of the choir group. “This is a real mashup. You’ve got the Yule log ceremony here. But Christmas is an international holiday. You get to drink beer and sing songs. The people here are real good to us.”
McCafferty said he met the singers years ago and wanted to “resurrect” the holiday season by celebrating alongside one another.
McCafferty said the annual Yule log celebration is his favorite holiday celebration because it reminds him how simple it is to appreciate life and the people standing next to you.
“In this world, it doesn’t matter where you’re from. It does’t matter because we’re all humans together in this circle of life right now, which is finding another end of the wheel,” McCafferty said. “It’s the start of a new wheel and life is about respect and appreciation for everybody together.”
