Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival

The Boar’s Head is one of the oldest continuing festival of the Christmas season. On its 600th anniversary in 1940, it was first celebrated at Christ Church, Cincinnati. Christ Church Cathedral presents the Boar’s Head & Yule Log Festival as a gift to the people of Cincinnati. It is not a story of tunes and times past and gone. It is a living story told by modern-day minstrels and echoed in all of us. These performances are given with our best wishes for a blessed and joyous season.

The pageant is rooted in ancient times when the boar was sovereign of the forest. A ferocious beast and menace to humans it was hunted as a public enemy. At Roman feasts, boar was the first dish served. Like our Thanksgiving turkey, roasted boar was a staple of medieval banquets. As Christian beliefs overtook pagan customs in Europe, the presentation of a boar’s head at Christmas came to symbolize the triumph of the Christ Child over sin.

Limited free tickets are available here. There is a limit of 4 tickets per person.

Please note, the January 3 performance at 2pm is a dress rehearsal (with very limited stops). The dress rehearsal is a great option for groups as up to 16 tickets can be reserved.

The Sunday performances of Boar’s Head will be live-streamed here.