Twelfth Night
By Mary Jo
Twelfth Night is a Christian festival that celebrates the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas. It can be either January 5th or 6th–different religious traditions have different ways of counting. Either will do.
Here in Wench Land, this post is the end of our annual Christmastide celebration posts. Monday we’ll return to our usual MWF posts. As for Twelfth Night itself, different customs are connected to it. One is that it’s time to take down Christmas decorations. In that spirit, I’m taking down the little electric candles in the windows in the front of my house. I’ve always loved the tradition of candles in the windows, and in fact it turns up in Christmas Candles, volume which that contains two
of my Christmas novellas.
It’s also the Feast of the Three Kings (or three Magi) as the alleged date when they arrived in Bethlehem. (I’ve wondered about the geography involved but logic and legend don’t have much to so with each other!) Feasting and revelry are also traditions, and because it’s the Feast of the Three Kings, many variations of king cakes are served. The image here is a Spanish Roscon de reyes, a ring of the king. (Image from Wikipedia Commons.)
Shakespeare’s famous comedy, Twelfth Night, may have been written to be performed on Twelfth Night, which fits with the jolly confusion of both the holiday and the play. This painting is of Malvolio and the Countess by Daniel Maclise.
Do you have any special traditions for Twelfth Night? King cakes and celebrating with friends sound good to me! I’ll content myself with taking down decorations in preparation for the peace and quiet of a winter January.
Mary Jo, adding that a major winter storm is blasting its way across a wide swath of the United States, including Maryland! It will be a good time to burrow in and read by the fire.
We don’t have a king cake, but we love a Trader ”Grotto’s” panettone this time of year.
Kathy, that is TOTALLY a good substitute!
Too partied out by now to do anything except collapse with a cup of tea and a choc chip scone……it’s been fun…but exhausting….no break because of Hanukah and Christmas coinciding this year….but it sure was a blast! Wheeeeeee…….
Jane, tea and chocolate scones are a lovely way to recover, and then a nice looooong nap….
No celebrations but we are watching NFL football!
Jeanne–whatever floats your boat! Some of those early Twelfth Night celebrations got pretty rowdy, so NFL football is a pretty good fit.
No celebrations here either. We had snowfall today and conditions are very poor. Even my internet is in and out. The fire is lighting and my Georgette Heyer book awaits me so I’m content.
Teresa–a warm fire and Georgette Heyer–what a very fine way to start a new year!
So which Georgette Heyer are you cozying up with? Sounds wo derful!
We took our decorations down yesterday, so things do look a tad less colorful today. I may have to have some hot chocolate and a piece of peppermint bark to console myself…. A fire to read by sounds wonderful, Mary Jo. Stay safe and warm as you burrow!
Kareni–hot chocolate and permit bark are delights to match any King Cake!
My brother asked if I was going Wassailing, so I googled it, and it seemed to involve waking up our apple trees by banging on pots and pans, and drinking mulled cider.
I’ve now invented demi-wassailing: I’m letting the trees doze on for a little.
MMCA–isn’t there an old saying about letting sleeping trees be? If there isn’t, there should be!
MMcA, I am sure the apple trees will appreciate their extra snoozing time!