British Billy's What is Twelfth Night?

  • Published
  • By British Billy
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  It's very likely that you've all heard of the song, 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', with all the partridges in pear trees, swans a-swimming and geese a-laying. They couldn't have included a cat in that song - with all those birds, it would have been carnage.

Well, the 12 days of Christmas actually start on Christmas Eve and end on the Twelfth Night, which is the night before Twelfth Day. So, Christmas started at sunset on Dec. 24. This was considered Christmas Evening, or Christmas Eve, as we call it today. Christmas would then continue until nightfall on Dec. 25, which started St. Stephen's Day, or Boxing Day, as we call it in the U.K. The festivities continued into the new year and finally ended on Jan. 5, or the Twelfth Day. I hope that you're keeping up.

'But', I hear you muse, 'shouldn't Twelfth Night follow Twelfth Day?' Well, my 21st century friends, it is only our modern understanding of astronomy and time-keeping that teaches us to start a new day in the middle of the night! To our ancient ancestors, the end of day was when the sun went down. The oncoming night was the beginning of the next day. Nights were actually part of the holiday, i.e. part of the next day.

Twelfth Night, of course, marks the visit of the Three Wise Men to the infant Jesus in the church's calendar, but this is often overshadowed by all the celebrations for Christmas Day itself. However, according to tradition, Jan. 5 is when all the Christmas decorations should be removed so as not to bring bad luck upon the home. If they're not removed by Twelfth Night, tradition dictates they should stay up all year.

Of course, many of these traditions are based on superstition. It was believed long ago that leaving up decorations would lead to disaster. Most decorations before industrialization were made of greenery such as holly, mistletoe and ivy. People believed that tree-spirits lived in the plants and the greenery was brought into the house to provide a safe haven for the tree-spirits during the harsh winter days. Failure to return the greenery (and therefore the spirits) to the outside would mean that the vegetation would not be able to start growing again; therefore, spring would not come. In addition, if left in the house, the spirits might be released and cause mischief.

And we think modern life is complicated.

In the U.K., many of the old traditions have sadly fallen by the wayside. People used to have parties on Twelfth Night and it was traditional to play practical jokes on your friends and neighbours. These would include tricks such as hiding live birds in empty pie cases, so they flew out when the startled guest cut the crust, as in the nursery rhyme 'Sing a song of Sixpence'.

Another tradition was the baking of the Twelfth Night cake, which was a rich, dense fruit cake containing a bean hidden inside. If you found the bean, you were then King or Queen of the Bean and everyone had to do what you told them to do. People would also use this occasion to perform plays or 'mumming' as it was called. It is thought that Shakespeare's play 'Twelfth Night' took its name because it was first performed as part of the Twelfth Night celebrations in 1601.

Each year, Twelfth Night is celebrated on London's bankside. To announce the celebration, the Holly Man appears from the River Thames. Afterwards the traditional St. George and the Dragon Mummers' play is performed and at the end of the play, Twelfth Night cakes distributed.

It all sounds such jolly good fun. I'm off out into the garden to round up the tree-spirits and create some mischief and mayhem myself.