Twelfth Night time will not be a nationwide vacation within the UK and is nowhere close to as celebrated as Christmas.
However, chances are you’ll effectively have heard of it, maybe by way of your digital calendar or by way of the well-known William Shakespeare play. So, what’s it – and why is it tied so tightly to the festive season?
What are Twelfth Night time’s spiritual origins?
Twelfth Night time is the night time earlier than Epiphany – that means it often falls on January 5.
Epiphany, also called the Feast of the Three Kings, is a Christian feast day, meant to honour the day the three kings or clever males visited Jesus after his beginning.
In response to the web encyclopaedia Britannica, Epiphany comes from the Greek phrase for manifestation or to disclose (epiphaneia) – referring to the best way by which Jesus was revealed to the three clever males.
Epiphany is among the three important oldest festivals within the Christian church, alongside Easter and Christmas.
Is it January 5 or 6?
Effectively, that depends upon the completely different branches of Christianity. Whereas it’s broadly seen because the twelfth day of the Christmas season, some begin counting these dozen days on Christmas Day itself – others begin on Boxing Day.
The Anglican Church buildings are likely to see January 5 because the Twelfth Night time – that means Epiphany is the following day – however different church buildings see it as January 6, so it’s on the identical day as Epiphany.
What’s the cultural affect of the event?
Up till the nineteenth Century, Christmas could be celebrated for a full 12 days, which is why Twelfth Night time was an vital marker within the calendar.
It’s in all probability precisely when the Shakespeare comedy Twelfth Night time (the story which influenced the 2006 traditional movie, She’s The Man) was carried out, being a play about celebration and merriment.
It was additionally the final day of celebrations earlier than these in agricultural communities needed to return to work on the next Monday (often called Plough Monday).
In some areas, Epiphany continues to be celebrated. Specific pastries could also be eaten, and kids could obtain presents of their sneakers to recollect the three clever males’s items to child Jesus, based on Britannica.
Whereas Twelfth Night time will not be as common as Christmas within the UK nowadays, it’s nonetheless seen as the purpose when many individuals take down their Christmas decorations for the 12 months to keep away from dangerous luck.
What does it must do with ‘dangerous luck’?
All of it comes from a medieval notion that decorations left up after a sure level could be “possessed by goblins”, based on English Heritage.
However, this level was not January 5 or 6 – it was February 2, also called Candlemas within the Christian calendar.
In response to English Heritage, individuals within the medieval period used to depart their festive greenery up till Candlemas in honour of the time when Mary and Joseph took their youngster to Jerusalem Temple.
It falls precisely 40 days after Christmas, and in medieval England it was the official finish of Christmas – and one other feast day.
It was known as Candlemas as a result of the candles used within the church for the following 12 months could be blessed on February 2.
Nevertheless, this superstition was warped within the Victorian period.
As Professor Nick Groom, from the College of Exeter’s English division, instructed i information: ”It was mainly the Victorians who determined that Christmas decorations ought to be taken down after 12 days as a result of they needed to get all people to work. They fastened it because the season of Christmas within the nineteenth century.”