The Twelfth Day of Christmas | Eve of Epiphany | January 5, 2022
Twelfth Day of Christmas
January 5, 2022
Eve of Epiphany (Twelfth Night)
Happy Eve of Epiphany! It’s time to take down that Christmas tree. Tradition in the Middle Ages warned that keeping Christmas decorations up after “Twelfth Night” would bring bad luck into the new year. “Other popular customs include eating King cake, singing Christmas carols, chalking the door, having one's house blessed, merrymaking, and attending church services.” As the final night of Christmas, for tomorrow the Magi arrive, it was a night of revelry and excitement. Special foods and parties were planned, wassailing (caroling) door-to-door was common and even Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night celebrates the traditional reversal of rolls that often occurred between servant and master for the day. Other literary references include Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, where the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Ebenezer Scrooge by a children’s Twelfth Night party. All of this festivity was indulged because “once the festivities are over, the audience will face a long, bleak winter in which social norms are back in place and debauchery is frowned upon.”
Happy Epiphany! Peace.
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Resources:
Multiple. (2022, January 5). Twelfth night (holiday). Wikipedia. Retrieved January 5, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night_(holiday)
Multiple. (n.d.). Twelfth Night - William Shakepeare. Sparknotes. Retrieved January 5, 2022, from https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/twelfthnight/context/historical/what-does-twelfth-night-refer-to/ Background image: