A word on Twelfth Night

A word on Twelfth Night

In a nutshell, Twelfth night is the night when Yuletide/Christmas decorations are taken down. However, Twelfth night has always been open to much debate but it can be summarized with the following:

Pretty much, you can either count 12 days/nights after Christmas or 12 days/nights after Yuletide and that will give you the window for 12th night. Old traditions say that it is very unlucky to take down Decorations later than the 12th night after Yuletide.

Using traditional Yuletide (the actual Winter Solstice or longest night of the year) as a reference then 12th night would have occured on Dec 21st at 12:47pm EST this year 2009. 12 nights after that day would be January 2nd. However, many people reference the Yuletide SEASON as being 6 days before the new year thru 6 days after the new year,the last six days of the old year (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 December ) and the first six days of the New Year (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 January).

Many strongline conservative Christians disallowed such "partying" on the 25th as it was considered a holy day and not one for partying.

In ancient tradition, however, especially in the cold dead winter of western medieval europe, this was indeed a time for celebration. This was the time to celebrate the return of the SUN as the days cease to shorten and more sunlight could be observed, giving hope that spring and new life was to come. Indeed a time for mumming, singing and dancing.

The twelve days of Yule would have been a most welcome break for the workers on the land, which in medieval times would have been the majority of the people. All work, except for looking after the animals, would stop, restarting again on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Night. More on Plough Monday later.

Old traditions burned the Yule log and it, lit on the longest night of the year(solstice), remained burning until Twelfth Night in order to bring good fortune to the house for the coming year. Its charred remains were kept, both to kindle the next year's Yule log, as well as to protect the house from fire and lightning.

Generically, January 6th is marked as the observed day by most of the modern world. Marked on some calendars as 3 Kings Day...others Boxing Day or Epiphany.

Regardless of what the fine detail of your belief is, now is the time to give thanks to the returning of the sun. It is okay to put away those lights that represented the energy of the sun since the sun has returned with its true energy. You can do this any time between the solstice and 12th night. Cleanse your space, put the decorations away, and enjoy the new energies of the new year.

FireHawk
http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/2009.shtml
CHART OF SOLSTICES,EQUINOXES and CROSS QUARTER MOMENTS