December 10, 2023
SCREEN CAPTURE/YOUTUBE
'9th Street Italian Market Burn Barrel at Christmas HD' is a YouTube video that offers a comically localized take on the traditional 'Yule Log' holiday film loop that originally aired on television in 1966.
It’s a scene as quintessentially Philly as a run up the Art Museum steps: In the heart of the Italian Market in South Philadelphia, a rusted-bottom metal barrel sits on the asphalt of 9th Street with flames licking out its top. What may appear post-apocalyptic to some is to others a convenient source of heat, if not a deep, nostalgic comfort. And now, it’s on YouTube.
A video entitled ‘9th Street Italian Market Burn Barrel at Christmas HD’ was uploaded over the weekend by Tony Trov from South Fellini, the East Passyunk-based boutique specializing in Philly-centric apparel and accessories. The video is comprised of exactly what its title suggests: For two hours, viewers can watch a barrel fire burning in broad daylight at 9th Street and Passyunk Ave while slow, piano-based renditions of Christmas carols add a festive, yet relaxing ambiance.
As the fire burns, cars can be seen passing by on 9th Street while a man periodically restocks the blaze with fresh pieces of wood. Other than that, the video remains remarkably consistent in presenting to its viewers exactly one thing: A metal barrel with a fire raging inside.
The video is a humorously localized parody of the classic Yule Log video, which began as a televised holiday tradition in the 1960s that has since taken on a new life on YouTube, where dozens of different videos featuring an hours-long shot of a crackling fireplace have garnered many millions of views.
The original Yule Log broadcast featured a multi-hour film loop of logs burning in a fireplace set to Christmas music, which was traditionally aired on television in New York City and other locales during the holiday from 1966 until the late 1980s. Originally meant to provide a sense of cozy, nostalgic comfort to New Yorkers living in apartments without fireplaces, the modern day digital Yule Log video concept attempts to do the same thing on Internet-connected screens ranging in size from mere inches to the size of a living room wall.
Much like the Yule Log, the sight of a flaming metal barrel on a city street comes with its own traditional and nostalgic legacy – especially here in Philadelphia. While the concept of starting a fire inside of a metal barrel for warmth undoubtedly predates the “Rocky” film franchise, the opening scene of the first movie may have put the practice on the map as a distinctly ‘Philly’ thing to do when it showed Rocky Balboa walking past a group of locals huddled around a barrel fire and singing “Take It Back,” the memorable doo-wop song written for the film by Sylvestor Stallone’s brother Frank.
Since well before the debut of “Rocky” in 1976, merchants in South Philly’s Italian Market have been known to keep barrel fires burning to provide a source of warmth in the outdoor market during winter months. As South Philly native Anthony Messina told a Washington Post reporter in 1989, "I was born here in 1928, and there's always been fire cans on this street to keep warm." By the late 80s, the Italian Market barrel fire had become such a well-known staple of life in the famed South Philadelphia marketplace that the city ordered merchants to stop lighting the fires due to environmental concerns.
Despite the city's objections, the Italian Market barrel fire has lived on, albeit with less frequency and presumably cleaner sources of fuel to keep the fires burning than whatever people were tossing into flaming barrels decades ago. For those who can't make it down to the Italian Market this winter season to experience the warmth of a South Philly barrel fire firsthand, South Fellini's YouTube channel offers the next best thing.
