‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ remains a popular carol in Britain, and many people still hold with the superstition that festive decorations must be taken down by 6 January, the twelfth day after Christmas Day, or bad luck will befall the household.
However, before the country’s Christmas traditions were transformed during the Victoria era, and especially during Tudor times, Twelfth Night was the climax of the whole festive season and an occasion of much raucous revelry. We take a look at the history behind Twelfth Night – and how it continues in some quirky traditions today.
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How did Twelfth Night traditions begin?
Strongly associated with the Tudor era, many Twelfth Day and Twelfth Night traditions can be traced right back to pagan beliefs and ceremonies, which also form the backstory of why we celebrate Christmas in late December.
England and Wales were part of the Roman Empire from AD 43 to AD 410, and during this period, local midwinter customs were rolled into the Roman festival of Saturnalia, which took place 17–23 December, and celebrations around the birth of the sun god, Sol Invictus, on 25 December. Traditions during these festivities included exchanging presents, the relaxation of rules and social divisions, and even the swapping of roles – so enslaved people ate with the people they usually served, and sometimes masters served others.
When Roman society and culture converted to Christianity, these celebrations were, in turn, absorbed into the new religion. The bible doesn’t mention a date of birth for Jesus, but it was expedient for Christianity to co-opt existing pagan celebrations, rather than try and stamp them out.
There are competing theories about the exact origins and dates, but most scholars agree that, by circa AD 354–60, Christ’s birthday was being celebrated on 25 December, while 6 January was important as the date of the Epiphany, when the Magi (Three Wise Men) are said to have visited the infant Jesus.
When is Twelfth Night?
Twelfth Night is usually celebrated on the night of 5 January – meaning your decorations will need to be packed away by 6 January.
Once established, the Christian tradition saw a period of fasting (Advent) beginning on 1 December and ended on Christmas Day, which signaled the start of 12 days of revelry and celebration with friends and family, involving large amounts of food, drink and merrymaking before the cold, miserable months of January and February kicked in. The climax of this 12-day shindig was – according to local variations and customs – either on the night of 5 January, or on 6 January.
What traditions are associated with Twelfth Night?
Elements of the Roman’s Saturnalia celebrations survived for many centuries, through Tudor times and (with a hiatus during the po-faced Puritan period) right up to the Victorian era, when most of the more reserved modern customs we now associate with Christmas began, including decorating pine trees and sending cards.
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One such Saturnalia-esque practice was the Feast of Fools, when a Lord or King of Misrule was appointed to preside over often-anarchic activities throughout the day. The nomination of this master of mayhem was determined by fate, with a dried bean being placed in a traditional cake, and the recipient of the slice containing the bean being crowned as the Lord.
Often a pea was also added to the cake, to determine a Queen of Chaos to help with the high jinx. In theory, these people could command their subjects (everyone else at the feast) to do anything – such as strip naked and sing a song… It was like nationwide game of truth or dare, and unsurprisingly, the church and other conservative institutions eventually discouraged it.
Why is Shakespeare’s play called Twelfth Night?
There are several reasons behind the name of Shakespeare's comedy. A Twelfth Night tradition was the swapping of traditional positions within the hierarchy of the house or court, so servants became masters and visa versa, and even gender roles were played around with. These sorts of shenanigans are central to the plot of Shakespeare’s comic play Twelfth Night, or What You Will (the play's proper title). The play was also commissioned for, and first performed during, Twelfth Night celebrations held by Queen Elizabeth I at Whitehall Palace on 6 January 1601.
How is Twelfth Night celebrated today?
Sadly, Lord of Misrule-style celebrations seem to have been successfully subdued by more conservative customs ushered in by the Victorians, and for many people the significance of the Twelve Days of Christmas is reduced to a carol and a reminder to take the decorations down for another year. However, some interesting Twelfth Night/Day traditions do endure around Britain: including wassailing, the Haxey Hood and the Baddeley cake.
What is wassailing?
In the West Country, the custom of wassailing remains strong. Typically celebrated on 6 January, this revolves around rural communities gathering in orchards to drink a warm, spiced alcoholic concoction made with apple juice, from a shared cup or bowl.
Aimed at securing good luck for the fruit harvest in the coming year, additional activities include the singing of specific songs and making a hullabaloo in orchards by bashing pots and pans to scare away bad spirits.
What does wassail mean?
The word ‘wassail’ is thought to originate from the Old English toast ‘was hál’, meaning ‘good health’ (‘be hale’). In 1992, the band Blur recorded ‘The Wassailing Song’, which is a version of the traditional ‘Gloucestershire Wassail Song’, which includes the classic lyrics: ‘Wassail! Wassail, all over the town, our toast it is white and our ale it is brown!’ (They don’t write them like that anymore.)
What is the Haxey Hood?
In Haxey, North Lincolnshire, an annual event called the Haxey Hood takes place on 6 January (or 5 January if the 6th is a Sunday), with the town’s four pubs each fielding a team of players who attempt to ‘sway’ a leather tube (the hood) towards their home hostelry, by using tactics comparable to scrummaging in rugby.
It’s a wild event, which is thought to have originated in the 14th century when Lady de Mowbray, the wife of a local landowner, lost her bonnet (hood) to the wind while riding through fields, resulting in a melee amongst farmworkers trying to rescue it for her. These days, the victorious pub gets to keep and display the hood for the following year (although they’re also expected to dish out a load of free drinks to competitors, so it’s a mixed blessing).
What is the Baddeley cake?
When the actor Robert Baddeley died in 1794, he left a bequest in his will to provide a Twelfth Night Cake and Punch to be enjoyed by the company in residence at Drury Lane Theatre every year on 6 January – a tradition that is still observed.
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