O/T Twelfth Night

[Phoenix]

A discussion started at work about when to take down the Xmas decorations. In all my years I'd never actually taken the time to find out what 12th night is all about, OK, maybe I went to see Shakespeare's 12th night on 12th night in Stratford but that was a lot of years ago

Anyway, a bit of googling and it turns out to be nothing to do with religion and everything to do with tree-spirits.

And twelfth night is Jan 5th, the eve of the 12th night so get those decorations down or you will annoy the tree-spirits

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk ... welfth.htm

[Number 1]

It was always decorations up 12 days before Christmas and down 12 days after. But in shops nowadays its 12 weeks before and down on Christmas Eve. (Was at ASDA anyway)

[Shrimpsscene]

the three wise men turned up jan 6th with their late xmas gifts
im sure mary and joseph would have been well miffed
decos down tonight if you took them down last night its bad luck

[Phoenix]

In the days of the 3 wise men, the 6th would have started at what we know as sunset on the 5th. Watch out sean, the tree spirits are after you.

Wikipedia defines it as the 5th, search for twelfth night holiday.

[SimplyRed MFC]

Kept my tree up for 11 months last year - 10 of them in the back garden.

Looked at bit sorry for itself ( and not green ) by October mind !

[morecambe mick]

Three wise men were Budhist monks.

No surprise alot of the parables told by Jesus were "modern" versions of Budhist parables.

Jesus is treated as a prophet by most religons worldwide.

[willowthewhisp]

decos down tonight if you took them down last night its bad luck

I thought it was just bad luck if you took them down after Jan 6th. We started taking ours down on Sunday and took the last ones (tree and lights) down on Monday.

[Phoenix]

When is Twelfth Night?
Twelfth Night is the evening of the 5th January.
Why is Twelfth Night on the 5th January and not the 6th (Twelfth Day)?
It is only with our modern understanding of astronomy and time keeping that we start a new day in the middle of the night. To our ancient ancestors, the end of the day was when the sun went down. The oncoming night was the beginning of the next day. Nights were actually part of the holiday i.e. the next day. Therefore Christmas started at sunset on December 24th. They considered this to be Christmas Evening (or Christmas Eve). Christmas Day would then continue until nightfall on the 25th which started St Stephen's Day (Boxing Day), the first of the twelve days of Christmas.
To our ancient ancestors, the Twelfth night after Christmas would have been the evening starting January 6th, Epiphany, the twelfth and final day of the Christmas season.

Some explanations (biblical or olden) say decorations down ON twelfth night, others BY twelfth night.

I prefer the tree-spirit answers, they're going to get you Sean

[Shrimpsscene]

When is Twelfth Night?
Twelfth Night is the evening of the 5th January.
Why is Twelfth Night on the 5th January and not the 6th (Twelfth Day)?
It is only with our modern understanding of astronomy and time keeping that we start a new day in the middle of the night. To our ancient ancestors, the end of the day was when the sun went down. The oncoming night was the beginning of the next day. Nights were actually part of the holiday i.e. the next day. Therefore Christmas started at sunset on December 24th. They considered this to be Christmas Evening (or Christmas Eve). Christmas Day would then continue until nightfall on the 25th which started St Stephen's Day (Boxing Day), the first of the twelve days of Christmas.
To our ancient ancestors, the Twelfth night after Christmas would have been the evening starting January 6th, Epiphany, the twelfth and final day of the Christmas season.

Some explanations (biblical or olden) say decorations down ON twelfth night, others BY twelfth night.

I prefer the tree-spirit answers, they're going to get you Sean

tree is in the loft now Brian
spirits are still in the cabinet
i was always taught twelfth night jan 6th epiphany when the late gifts turned up
but then i suppose at least the youngster got some presents
bloody wikipedia.......

[HALMA 1983]

My trees down along with the rest of it before the new year and the beginning of work but my mate in Madrid enjoys himself on the 6th because in Spain the 12th night is Christmas commonly known as the 'Day of Magic Kings'

[USA Shrimp]

in Spain the 12th night is Christmas commonly known as the 'Day of Magic Kings'

'El Día de Los Tres Reyes Magos' is the Three Wise Kings' Day, Ade. If you look up 'magos' in a Spanish/English dictionary you will see 'magic' as the translation, however in this case it is just the word 'magi' being Spanishized, as there is no Spanish (or English, for that matter) translation of magi.

We do, of course, have the word magic which more than likely derives from magi, which came to mean some mysterious, wise, man who possessed (supposed) fanciful powers. Are you still with me ? I'll shut up now and go log on to wordreference.com

Sorry - I can't help it. I'm a Spanish teacher.

[HALMA 1983]

I can only go off the words he types in on msn unfortunately his translation is done in the main via a translator but I thank you for putting me right

[Aal]

Thought it was very sad to see my neighbour across the road take down her tree etc on Dec30th... and with 3 kids in the house too.

Always makes the place seem so dark when life returns to normal, and can be so depressing.

By the way, taking of the Wise Men (Magi), the Bible makes no mention of there being 3 but we assume that cos of 3 gifts.....and what varied and yet symbolic gifts, GOLD for a king, FRANKINCENSE for a priest, and MYRRH for anointing dead folk!!! That last one must have freaked out poor Mary and Joseph.

Also if it was 12 days late, they would not have been still in the stable would they?