Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Wikipedia
Twelfth Night is a holiday in some branches of Christianity marking the coming of the Epiphany, concluding the Twelve Days of Christmas, and is defined by 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".[1]
The celebration of Epiphany, the adoration of the Magi, is marked in some cultures by the exchange of gifts, and Twelfth Night, as the eve or vigil of Epiphany, takes on a similar significance to Christmas Eve.
In some traditions it is taken to mean the evening of the Twelfth Day itself, the sixth of January. This apparent difference has arisen probably because in modern times people are less aware of the old custom of treating sunset as the beginning of the following day, and perceive Twelfth Night to mean the night of the Twelfth Day.
[edit] Origins and history
In Tudor England[citation needed], the Twelfth Night marked the end of a winter festival that started on All Hallows Eve — now more commonly known as Halloween. The Lord of Misrule symbolizes the world turning upside down. On this day the king and all those who were high would become the peasants and vice versa. At the beginning of the twelfth night festival twelfth cake which contained a bean was eaten. The person who found the bean became king of the bean and would run the feast. Midnight signaled the end of his rule and the world would return to normal. The common theme was that the normal order of things was reversed. This Lord of Misrule tradition can be traced back[citation needed] to pre-Christian European festivals such as the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia.
The Winter Solstice (December 21st) historically marked the first day of many winter festivals. The 12 nights following and including the solstice represent the 12 zodiac signs of the year - and the 12th Night (New Years Day) is a culmination and celebration of the winter festivals.[citation needed]
[edit] Traditions
The foods and drink are the center of the celebrations in modern times, and all of the most traditional ones go back many centuries. The punch called wassail is consumed especially on Twelfth Night, but throughout Christmas time, especially in the UK. Around the world, special pastries, such as the tortell and king cake are baked on Twelfth Night, and eaten the following day for the Feast of the Epiphany celebrations. In English and French custom, the Twelfth-cake was baked to contain a bean and a pea, so that those who received the slices containing them should be designated king and queen of the night's festivities.
Some believe Twelfth Night (or the following day Epiphany) is when all Christmas decorations should be removed so as not to bring bad luck upon the home. In colonial America, a Christmas wreath was always left up on the front door of each home, and when taken down at the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas, any edible portions would be consumed with the other foods of the feast. The same held true in the 1800s - 1900s with fruits adorning Christmas trees. Fresh fruits were hard to come by, and were therefore considered fine and proper gifts and decorations for the tree, wreaths, and home. Again, the tree would be taken down on Twelfth night, and such fruits, along with nuts and other local produce used, would then be consumed.
In some countries, and in the Catholic religion worldwide, the Twelfth Night and Epiphany marks the start of the Carnival season, which lasts through Mardi Gras Day.
[edit] Influence on literature
Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, or What You Will was written to be performed as a Twelfth Night entertainment and first performed at Middle Temple Hall, London during the Twelfth Night celebrations of 1602 at the culmination of the celebrations, which was then at Candlemas, February 2. The play has many elements that are reversed in the tradition of Twelfth Night, such as a woman Viola dressing as a man, and a servant Malvolio imagining that he can become a nobleman.
In Harrison Ainsworth's novel Mervyn Clitheroe (Ch. 6), the eponymous hero is elected King of festivities at the Twelfth Night celebrations held in Tom Shakeshaft's barn, by receiving the slice of plum cake containing the Bean; his companion Cissy obtains the pea and becomes queen, and they are seated together in a high corner to view the proceedings. The distribution has been rigged to prevent another person gaining the role. The festivities include country dances, and the introduction of a "Fool Plough", a plough decked with ribands brought into the barn by a dozen mummers together with a grotesque "Old Bessie" (played by a man) and a Fool dressed in animal skins with a fool's hat. The mummers carry wooden swords and perform revelries. The scene in the novel is illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). In the course of the evening the fool's antics cause a fight to break out, but Mervyn restores order. Three bowls of gin punch are disposed of, and at eleven o'clock the young men make the necessary arrangements to see the young ladies safely home across the fields.
[edit] Esotericism
According to some esoteric and astrological interpretations of Christmas, the "Twelve Holy Days" start on December 26, the day following Christmas "holy day", and end on January 6; therefore the night of January 6 is regarded as the Twelfth Night, and is held to have been the time when the "Rite of Baptism" was performed in early Christianity,[2] and of course the date of Epiphany itself.
[edit] See also
- Twelve Days of Christmas
- Christmas
- Christmastide
- Epiphany, Little Christmas
- Biblical Magi, Nativity scene
- Theophany
- Christmas carol
- Lord of Misrule
- Twelfth Night, or What You Will, a famous play by William Shakespeare with a theme of misrule.
- Pantomime
[edit] Early English sources
(drawn from Hone's Every-Day Book, references as found):
- Vox Graculi, 4to, 1623: 6th January, Masking in the Strand, Cheapside, Holbourne, or Fleet-street (London), and eating of spice-bread.
- The Popish Kingdom, 'Naogeorgus': Baking of the twelfth-cake with a penny in it, the slices distributed to members of the household to give to the poor: whoever finds the penny is proclaimed king among them.
- Nichols, Queen Elizabeth's Progresses: An entertainment at Sudley, temp. Elizabeth I, including Melibaeus king of the bean, and Nisa, queen of the pea.
- Pinkerton, Ancient Scottish Poems: Letter from Sir Thomas Randolph to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester dated 15 Jan 1563, mentioning that Lady Flemyng was Queen of the Beene on Twelfth-Day that year.
- Ben Jonson, Christmas, His Masque (1616, published 1641): A character 'Baby-cake' is attended by an Usher carrying a great cake with a beane and a pease.
- Robert Herrick (poet), Twelfe-Night, or King and Queene: Describes the election of king and queen by bean and pea in a plum cake, and homage done to them by every man draining wassail bowls of 'lamb's-wool', a drink of sugar, nutmeg, ginger and ale.
- Samuel Pepys, Diaries (1659/60): Epiphany Eve party, selecting of King and Queen by a cake (see King cake).
[edit] References
- ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 1993 edition.
- ^ Corinne Heline. New Age Bible Interpretation, Vol. VII Mystery of the Christos:The Twelve Holy Days. ISBN 0-933963-07-6 ; period starting December 26th (after Christmas day) to January 6th (Twelfth Night).
- Christmas. Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved on December 22, 2005. Primarily subhead Popular Merrymaking under Liturgy and Custom.
- Christmas Trivia edited by Jennie Miller Helderman, Mary Caulkins. Gramercy, 2002
- Marix-Evans, Martin. The Twelve Days of Christmas. Peter Pauper Press, 2002
- Bowler, Gerry. The World Encyclopedia of Christmas. McClelland & Stewart, 2004
- Collins, Ace. Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas. Zondervan, 2003
- Wells, Robin Headlam. Shakespeare's Humanism. Cambridge University Press, 2006
- T.D. Fosbrooke, c 1810, 'Encyclopaedia of Antiquities' (Publisher unknown)
- J. Brand, 1813, 'Popular Antiquities', 2 Vols (London)
- W. Hone, 1830, 'The Every-Day Book' 3 Vols (London), cf Vol I pp 41-61.
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
- Epiphany on Catholic Encyclopedia
- The Twelve Days of Christmas at The Christian Resource Institute
- William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night"
Annotations
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Surprisingly Sam calls the 7th January Twelfth Day. We would apply the title to the 6th - the Feast of the Epiphany.
Dickens, in a Christmas Carol, mentions the occasion being celebrated with a ‘Twelfth Cake’, as does Sam,but what did Pepys’ games involve? In the 21st century the cake has been moved into December as a Christmas Cake. -
See 6th of January 1659/60 annotations:
There is a long discussion about 12th night and cakes, especially in continental Europe.
I was in Switzerland on 12th night this year, and there was no sign of 12th night celebrations, so perhaps it is a catholic thing, and has almost disappeared in protestant communities. -
12th night celebrations
In the central part of the Low Countries (now in Belgium) it was traditional to celebrate this on the first monday after January 6th. This day was known as ‘Lost Monday’ and closed a period of feasting and merriment. According to 16th century descriptions this was very much like ‘Mardi Gras’, involving mainly lots of drinking and ‘doing’ as many pubs as possible ‘with the guys’. Traditionally the corporations offered a free meal to their members on that day (sausage on a ‘plate’ of hard bread).
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If you read the diary, Pepys explains that they are celebrating on the 7th because in 1661, the 6th fell on a Sunday. The traditional 12th Night celebrations were a time for games, pranks and role playing featuring the Twelfth cake (like our fruit cake with a bean, pea and sometimes a clove baked into it. The cake is baked months in advance and soaked all the preceeding year with sack, rum or brandy). The reveler whose slice has the bean is to be treated like a king all night long, his every command to be obeyed. The pea indicates the lady who shall be the Queen, and if you read that same entry it appears that the pea had been divided in two when the cake was sliced and so that year there were 2 “Queens” presiding over the festivities. The clove, if used, indicated the Knave to keep the party jolly. At midnight or at the end of the party, the King’s reign ended and he agreed to pay for next year’s party and the Queen would bake the cake. During Pepys’ time, the custom began to become popular of writing King, Queen, Knave on slips of paper with additional blanks containing wishes for the New Year. These were put into a hat and drawn out as they took their piece of cake. Pepys refers to this elsewhere.
In 18th Century Virginia there are several diaries describing these customs and in England from the 1790’s sheets of Characters are printed each year to be cut and drawn from the hat with each guest having to assume that personna.
The French in Louisiana, when celebrating the Mardi Gras, bake “Babycakes” with a small doll in them for good luck. My Canadian Grandmother had a box of “charms” that she baked into our birthday cakes. Most of you have seen them in your Monopoly sets. Monopoly’s inventor designed and tested the game in his kitchen and used what was handy for tokens—-the same cake charms that where popularly sold in the 1920’s.
All these practices have deep roots going back to ancient fertility celebrations.
Marcia Finger—Williamsburg, Virginia -
When I was a boy in England the Christmas cake was baked some time ahead and soaked in Brandy. Inside my Mother inserted silver threepenny bits and you were favored to get one with your piece of cake.
This practice fell out of favor with my sisters when they were married as the metal for threepenny bits was changed from silver to a brass alloy that would discolour in the cake. -
Twelfth night on board ship.
The Rev. Henry Teonge, chaplain of one of Charles’s ships-of-war, describes Twelfth-Night on board:
‘Wee had a great kake made, in which was put a beane for the king, a pease for the queen, a cloave for the knave, &c. The kake was cut into several pieces in the great cabin, and all put into a napkin, out of which every one took his piece as out of a lottery; then each piece is broaken to see what was in it, which caused much laughter, and more to see us tumble one over the other in the cabin, by reason of the ruff weather.’
The celebrated Lord Peterborough, then a youth, was one of the party on board this ship, as Lord Mordaunt.
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Mr. Pepys is to be thanked for the information provided here. I came upon your site while preparing for my own 12th Night Revel to be held 1/6/07. We shall have a bean, a pea and NOW a clove in the cake I am ordering, thanks to your information. I am wondering what’s to prevent a man from getting the pea but then who cares! A Morris Dance side, the Capering Roisters, will come to dance as we wassail a newly planted grove of apple trees. I must go now to order my “kake”.