Is 12th Night tonight or tomorrow?

Ever been confused about when we should celebrate 12th Night, and how to count the 12 days of Christmas? Maggie Dawn reflects on this question today, the 12th Day of Christmas.

Twelfth Night
By Maggie Dawn at her blog

there is always some confusion about which day is 12th night – the 5th or the 6th of January? Is it the night before Epiphany or Epiphany itself?

The confusion, as I understand it, comes from the fact that pre-modern calendars regarded sundown as the division of one day and the next, rather than midnight. Add to that the fact that traditions vary as to whether they count Christmas Day (beginning on evening of 24th) as the first day, or the evening of Christmas day, lasting through the day time of boxing day, as the first day.

You might, then, count 25 december as “the first day of Christmas.” on that reckoning, the last night of the Christmas festivities is the 5th January. However, if you start day one at sundown on 25 dec, twelfth night falls on Epiphany, the 6th January.

And the twelve days, in any case, were only invented to cover a prior set of confusions about when Christmas Day was – formerly 6 January in the Eastern Calendar, and later 25th December in the West. What they definitely are NOT is the last twelve shopping days before Christmas

Posted on January 5, 2011 9:00 AM | |
Comments (3)

Twelfth night is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking".

And the OED is certainly definitive!

Posted by John-Julian,OJN [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 5, 2011 10:42 AM

Down heah in south Louisiana, the tradition is to celebrate 12th night on Jan. 6. Is now and always has been in my living memory, and I am old.

In New Orleans, the Twelfth Night Revelers ball launches the Carnival season on Jan. 6. We morph directly from Christmas season to Carnival season, OED notwithstanding.

June Butler

Posted by GrandmèreMimi [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 5, 2011 1:01 PM

Gotta go w/ G'mere on this one, Fr J-J.

12th Night, like Fat Tuesday: the last night (before the season change), not the penultimate night!

JC Fisher

Posted by tgflux [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 5, 2011 6:20 PM

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