In 1340, according to legend, a student at Queen’s College in Oxford, England, read a metal-bound book of Aristotle as he strolled through the forest to Christmas Mass. Wild boars, a menace to society, roamed the woods and one attacked the young man. With no weapons, he rammed his book into boar’s mouth, choking the animal to death. Roasted boar was often served at medieval banquets. A procession carried in the boar’s garnished head into the dining hall that night while carolers sang. This presentation at Christmas became a symbol of Jesus’s triumph over sin.

St. John’s College in Cambridge celebrated the Boar’s Head Festival by 1607. An expanded cast of historical characters, lords, ladies, knights, hunters, and others told of the birth of Jesus. Magi and shepherds were added later.

Mince pie and plum pudding were served at the festival and the Yule Log was lit.

The medieval festival is still celebrated in Europe and the United States. The formal program at Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati includes: Orchestral Prelude, Procession of the Beefeaters, The Yule Sprite Comes, The Boar’s Head Procession, The Yule Log, The Waits, The Angel, The Shepherds, The Magi, The World joins the Kings and Shepherds, Recessional, Orchestral Postlude and The Yule Sprite Returns.

During the Boar’s Head Procession, a boar’s head is carried in by knights and others.

There is symbolic meaning to the parts of the medieval service that occurs between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The costumes and processions transport guests back in time and is worth experiencing.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Berten, Jinny Powers. Cincinnati Christmas, Orange Frazer Press, 2011.

“The Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival Tradition,” Christ Church Cathedral, 2019/07/29 ttps://cincinnaticathedral.com/boars-head-tradition/.