Traditions and History of Twelfth Night
British people rushing to take down their Christmas decorations on January 5 2013, to avoid misfortune, may wonder why they do so.Twelfth nighthas a history and traditions all of its own. Its history goes back into Britain’s earliest times and beliefs.
In ancient times, people understood that sundown began the new day. December 26 was the first day of the Christmas festival, but the day began at sundown on Christmas Day. Christmas Day was a holy day and therefore not part of the Christmas celebrations, feasting and parties began atsundown on Christmas Day.
Epiphany (6 January) is when Christians celebrate the Magi’s arrival after Jesus’ birth. In earlier times, Christmas lasted until Candlemass 2nd February 40 days after Christmas (commemorating Jesus’ presentation at the temple according to Christian belief); during which celebrating and feasting would continue and land workers would cease work, except the necessary caring for animals. However, this was not good economically and the holiday became just thetwelve days of Christmas.
The first Monday after Epiphany isPlough Monday, the official beginning to the agricultural year and the day that workers returned to work the land after the Christmas holiday. According to the Oxford English dictionary, documentary references to Plough Monday date to the fourteenth century.
Today, people best know the Twelfth Night celebrations fromTudor times. It was atraditionaltime for mummers. Mummers’ plays were originally religious dramas, illustrating biblical events.Shakespearewrote his play Twelfth night for a Twelfth Night performance in 1610. In Tudor times, twelfth night was a time when people played roles opposite their usual station in life. A rich fruitcake was the traditional fare on Twelfth night, the cake would contain a bean and the person finding the bean became the Lord of Misrule, the king of the twelfth night feast. His reign ended at midnight on twelfth night.
The custom springs from the belief that the world was turning upside down. The tradition endures in France today, Gateau du Roi is a fancy rich almond tart eaten at Epiphany. In Southern France, cooks put a gold ring or figure in the tart. A single woman finding a ring in her slice of gateau will marry within the year, a gold figure will bring prosperity and good luck to the person finding it. Some French cooks bake small porcelain figures into their gateaux du Roi, each figure has a different meaning.
Most people believe that Twelfth Night originally signified the end of a festival that began on All Hallows Eve orHalloween. Some state categorically that this tradition dates back to pre-Christian days and to the Roman feast Saturnalia, but it may be much older even than that.TheCeltscalled Halloween,Samhainand believed that the barriers between the living and the dead were less rigid during the period between Samhain and the shortest day. The dead could pass into the living world and play tricks on the living, even tempting them to pass into the underworld. For the Celts, long dark nights made life uncertain. The sun was leaving and it may never return. This indicates sun worship and this belief is very old indeed. It may have come to Britain with the veryfirst Britonsto settle there after the Ice Age.
The ancient BritishYulecelebration, and the otherpagan feaststhat Christmas replaced, fell on the shortest day. People believed that they needed to light the newborn sun god’s way into the world. By Candlemas, people could see that the sun was returning.
The British superstition that all Christmas decorations must come down before midnight on January 5 would seem to date from this time too. People used to decorate their houses with natural Christmas decorations, such as holly, ivy and mistletoe. Originally, people brought greenery into the house to keep the woodland spirits safe during mid-winter. Once the dangerous time was over, one had to take the woodland spirits outside so that they could bring spring to the countryside again. The ancients believed that imprisoning the woodland spirits inside past their time would make them so angry they would play tricks on the inhabitants until their release. Ancient people used holly to symbolize the sun god
Twelfth night used to be a time for parties and playing tricks. The nursery rhyme “Sing a Song of Sixpence” may remind one of these Twelfth Night tricks, hiding live birds under an empty piecrust so that the birds flew out when guests cut the pie.
Today, people think a Yule log is a cake, but it was originally a wooden log. It was lit on Christmas Day, and it was kept burning until twelfth night to bring the house good luck, its remains were kept to light next year’s Yule Log and protect the house from thunder and lightening.
In cider-making areas in Britain,wassailingthe apple trees is still traditional. In Kent, fifty years ago, people walked to the orchards on Twelfth Night. When they got there, they sang special songs to the apple trees, drinking their health in spiced cider punch and pouring some around the tree roots. The people then lit bonfires in the orchard and held a noisy party to tell the apple trees that spring was coming. Someone would place toast in the trees so that they would not suffer insect infestations. This custom would also seem to be very old: the cider punch and toast offering to the tree spirits in exchange for a good harvest.
There areTwelfth Night celebrations in various areas in the United Kingdom. However, Twelfth Night is not just a country celebration, every year Twelfth Night is celebrated in theBankside area,London. The Holly man appears from the Thames. The Holly man is theGreen Manin his winter clothes. He brings in the Green, and toasts the people, The Thames and the Globe for health and good luck. The Mummers then process to Bankside Jetty to perform. After the play, they lead the people to the George Inn, Borough High Street for storytelling and jollification.
In 2014, this celebration is at2.45pm Sunday 6 January, near the Globe theatre. Twelfth Night’s history is long, interesting, and surprisingly old, its traditions stretch back into Britain’s history and people’s earliest spiritual beliefs.
