Since the early 20th century, the Serbian "badnjak" tradition has also been celebrated more publicly. Before World War I, soldiers of the Kingdom of Serbia developed the custom of laying a "badnjak" on a fire in their barracks. In the succeeding Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the military "badnjak" ceremony was further elaborated and standardized in army service regulations, but the tradition ended at the outbreak of World War II. Since the early 1990s, the Serbian Orthodox Church has, together with local communities, organized public celebrations on Christmas Eve in which the "badnjak" plays a central role. Parishioners festively cut the sapling to be used as the "badnjak" and take it to their church, where it is consecrated by a priest before being ceremonially placed on a fire pit in the churchyard.