Twelfth Night or Epiphany Eve is a festival in some branches of Christianity marking the coming of the Epiphany, concluding the Twelve Days of Christmas, and is defined by the Shorter 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.

Some people still celebrate these holidays.  There’s a person in my husband’s command whose family always exchanged gifts on January 6.

Wikipedia also says that “Twelfth Night marked the end of a winter festival that started on All Hallows Eve — now more commonly known as Halloween.”  I think things have pretty much come full circle.  It seems that more and more the Christmas season is earlier and earlier, at least judged by when Christmas decorations appear in the stores.  Doesn’t it sometimes seem to you like we’re expected to celebrate Christmas immediately after Halloween these days?

What about celebrating a day when everything is turned upside down, with everyone’s roles reversed?  Medieval people and ancient Europeans did just that.  I’ve already mentioned The Feast of Innocents on December 28–which commemorated when Herod killed the children of Bethlehem–where children’s and adults’ roles were reversed.

It seems they celebrated a similar holiday on January 5 called the Feast of Fools.  (Although Wikipedia says that “in the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the Feast of Fools was staged on or about the Feast of the Circumcision, January 1.)  The person “ruling” the feast and the festivities was called the Lord of Misrule.  Wikipedia has this to say:

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 a cake which contained a bean was eaten. The person who found the bean 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.^{[neutrality disputed]}

Apparently this celebration could get quite wild and profane,leading to the Church banning it in 1431.  Considering this quote from Wikipedia: “The ceremonies often mocked the performance of the highest offices of the church, while other persons, dressed in different kinds of masks and disguises, engaged in songs and dances and practiced all manner of revelry within the church building” and how Carnival is celebrated today, I can just imagine.

Anybody want to revive the tradition?  Your boss could work for you for a change.

Please do click on the links above, at the very least the Twelfth Night, Feast of Fools, and Lord of Misrule links.  There’s a lot of interesting information there–more than I can put in one blog post.

And last but not least, here is the final installment of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song I’ve been doing each day.  This song itself is a Twelfth Night tradition: it originated as a song sung as a game played at Twelfth night parties.  The leader would sing a verse and everyone else would copy.  He’d add a line each line, and everyone else had to remember what he’d sung or have to pay a penalty, such as “offering up a kiss or a sweet.^[1]“ That, at least, is the most common and accepted explanation of its origins.  Click on the song title above to go to the Wikipedia article and learn more.

So here it is, the last and final verse of this most famous Twelfth Night song on Twelfth Night:

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Twelve lords a-leaping
(Eleven ladies dancing
Ten pipers piping
Nine drummers drumming
Eight maids a-milking
Seven swans a-swimming
Six geese a-laying
Five golden rings**
Four calling birds*
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.)
* Note: Wikipedia says “calling birds” is a corruption of “colly birds” which are black birds.

** Wikipedia also assures me that golden rings does not refer to “jewelry but to ring-necked birds such as the ring-necked pheasant.”

Have a very merry Twelfth Night, Everyone.

This is also my 100th blog post. Congratulations to me! Jeremy says, “But there are only 77 comments.  Y’all need to work harder!”  I did 100 posts in 58 weeks.  Hmm…maybe I need to work harder too.  I would like to post at least twice if not at least three times each week this year.  I did reach a huge milestone: I posted to my blog every day in December.  I’d never actually done a whole month before.  .So that’s awesome.  How long until post 200?

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas my true love gave to me

Eleven ladies dancing
(Ten pipers piping
Nine drummers drumming
Eight maids a-milking
Seven swans a-swimming
Six geese a-laying
Five golden rings**
Four calling birds*
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.)

* Note: Wikipedia says “calling birds” is a corruption of “colly birds” which are black birds.

** Wikipedia also assures me that golden rings does not refer to “jewelry but to ring-necked birds such as the ring-necked pheasant.”

Here’s today’s verse from the song:

On the Tenth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Ten pipers piping
(Nine drummers drumming
Eight maids a-milking
Seven swans a-swimming
Six geese a-laying
Five golden rings**
Four calling birds*
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.)

* Note: Wikipedia says “calling birds” is a corruption of “colly birds” which are black birds.

** Wikipedia also assures me that golden rings does not refer to “jewelry but to ring-necked birds such as the ring-necked pheasant.”

I never liked January 2nd for this reason.  But I don’t have to go back to work until Jan 4, Sunday.  (Our workweek is Sunday to Thursday.)  And I still feel like celebrating, so I’m going to continue this “Days of Christmas” theme until the end (Jan 6).

So here goes the latest installment:

On the Ninth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Nine drummers drumming
(Eight maids a-milking
Seven swans a-swimming
Six geese a-laying
Five golden rings**
Four calling birds*
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.)

* Note: Wikipedia says “calling birds” is a corruption of “colly birds” which are black birds.

** Wikipedia also assures me that golden rings does not refer to “jewelry but to ring-necked birds such as the ring-necked pheasant.”

As mentioned, it is the Eighth Day of Christmas.  We are still in the period of time known as Christmastide.  And so it is still the holidays, and I will continue to do “days of Christmas” posts until Christmastide ends.

Along with the new year is also the start of the non-bird or “people” gifts in the famous “Twelve Days of Christmas” song.  Don’t you think it interesting that all the gifts on the days in December are birds and the ones in January are not?

Here’s the latest installment:

On the Eighth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Eight maids a-milking
(Seven swans a-swimming
Six geese a-laying
Five golden rings**
Four calling birds*
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.)

* Note: Wikipedia says “calling birds” is a corruption of “colly birds” which are black birds.

** Wikipedia also assures me that golden rings does not refer to “jewelry but to ring-necked birds such as the ring-necked pheasant.”

I hope all of you are having a blessed start to your new year.

I didn’t see the ball drop in New York.  I woke up too late to turn the TV on and watch it.  Yes, folks, around here the ball drops at 8:00 a.m., and I was asleep.  I woke up at 8:18 a.m., so was too late.  But I didn’t go to bed until almost 5:00 a.m., so that really wasn’t much sleep.

Anyway, Jeremy and I are celebrating quietly.  We went to church last night, and had a really good time both in the church service and in the feasting and fellowship afterwards.  It was real nice.  So I had a great New Year’s Eve, and am having a great New Year’s Day.

I hope you are too.

So after the party and feasting and fellowship, we’ll come home having rung in the New Year.  And then we’ll go to bed and maybe get up early to watch the ball drop in New York.  It’s due to drop at 8:00 a.m.  Then I might go back to bed.  But I might stay up to wish my family a Happy New Year at 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m.

I think it’s rather strange the idea of sleeping first and then watching the ball drop.  Back home everyone’s staying up late to watch it, and then they’ll sleep.  But then they’re not half way around the world where it will be broad daylight by the time the ball drops.  So, yes, around here you ring in the New Year, go to bed, and then get up to watch the ball drop.

It’s even stranger when the ball will drop before my family even has their New Year’s.  It will still be 2008 for them when the ball drops in New York, while it will have been 2009 for eight hours already for me.

And then you have to think that it’s been New Year’s already even longer for Japan and China, but still 2008 for several hours yet for Hawaii.  I haven’t done the math, but I wonder if it is 2009 for almost an entire day for some of the world before 2009 comes for all the world.  Yes, I know if you stand on either side of the International Date Line it is an entire day’s difference, but it’s water on either side.  I’m talking about land where people actually live.

It’s kind of strange when you think about it.  New Year’s Day starts on January 1 for everyone, but New Year’s Day doesn’t start at the same time for everyone.

Interesting, though weird.

So how are you spending your Christmas Eve?  I hope you’re spending it with friends or family.  Is your New Year’s before or after the ball drops. Will you be viewing it in person or on television?  Do you even care?

I wish you a Happy New Year, and I hope 2009 will be a wonderful year for you and better than 2008.

I think it’s interesting that the first seven gifts all have to do with birds.  When you start on Christmas Day as the First Day of Christmas, that very neatly brings us to the end of the year, New Year’s Eve.  So all the gifts given in December are birds, and all the remaining gifts given in January are people, or the services of people.  That’s interesting.  I don’t know what it means–if it’s supposed to mean anything.  I wonder if whoever thought up the song in the first place did it that way on purpose.  We’ll never know.

So here it is:

On the Seventh Day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Seven swans a-swimming
(Six geese a-laying
Five golden rings**
Four calling birds*
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.)

* Note: Wikipedia says “calling birds” is a corruption of “colly birds” which are black birds.

** Wikipedia also assures me that golden rings does not refer to “jewelry but to ring-necked birds such as the ring-necked pheasant.”

Happy New Year’s, Muslims!

And for the rest of us, since it’s the Sixth Day of Christmas, I have another installment for you in the song we all know:

On the Sixth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Six geese a-laying
(Five golden rings**
Four calling birds*
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.)

* Note: Wikipedia says “calling birds” is a corruption of “colly birds” which are black birds.

** Wikipedia also assures me that golden rings does not refer to “jewelry but to ring-necked birds such as the ring-necked pheasant.”

¹ Source is “Islamic Calendar” from Wikipedia.  Please follow the link to learn more.

² from the Wikipedia article “Muharram“

Today is the Fourth Day of Christmas.  According to Wikipedia, it is also Childermas or the Feast of the Innocents.  The article I linked to says it is in commemoration of the Massacre of the Innocents which was when Herod killed all the boy children two years and under in Bethlehem after the Magi told him that a new king of the Jews had been born and the religious scholars told him that it was prophesied to happen in Bethlehem.  The story can be found in Matthew 2:1-18.

The Wikipedia article recounts some interesting customs associated with this holiday.  To save you the trouble of clicking over to the article (although I encourage you to do just that as there’s more interesting stuff about the holiday), I’ve copied them here:

In Spain and Ibero-America, December 28 is a day for pranks, equivalent to April Fool’s Day in many countries. Pranks are known as inocentadas and their victims are called inocentes, or alternatively, the pranksters are the “inocentes” and the victims should not be angry at them, since they could not have committed any sin. Various Catholic countries had a tradition (no longer widely observed) of role reversal between children and their adult educators, including boy bishops, perhaps a Christianized version of the Roman annual feast of the Saturnalia (when even slaves played ‘masters’ for a day). In some cultures it is said to be an unlucky day, when no new project should be started.

In addition, there was a medieval custom of refraining where possible from work on the day of the week on which the feast of “Innocents Day” had fallen for the whole of the following year until the next Innocents Day. This was presumably mainly observed by the better-off. Philippe de Commynes, the minister of King Louis XI of France tells in his memoirs how the king observed this custom, and describes the trepidation he felt when he had to inform the king of an emergency on the day.

Interesting, right?  So did anyone start a new project today, or are you planning to?  Did anyone play a prank on anyone else?  How about reverse roles with your children or students or employees?  And what about taking the day of the week off for the whole rest of the year?  Today is Sunday, so, sorry.  Most of you don’t work on Sunday, so you didn’t really “win” anything as you won’t be working any other Sunday the rest of the year.  Now those of us who live in Bahrain and have a workweek from Sunday through Thursday, or those who routinely work weekends….  Hmm… Maybe we can get out of some work the rest of the year.  And then again maybe not.  I don’t think my employer would go for it.  What about yours?

Well, there’s always next year.  And the Feast of Innocents falls on a Monday next year.  That should enable everyone to play….

They are interesting customs though.  Very interesting.  You can learn the most interesting things on Wikipedia.

But the next thing is something you already know.  Today is the Fourth Day of Christmas and that means:

On the Fourth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Four calling birds*
(three French hens
Two turtle doves
and a partridge in a pear tree.)

*Note: Wikipedia says “calling birds” is a corruption of “collie birds” which are black birds.

Happy Holidays!