Twelfth Night - pack away those decorations
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Tonight is twelfth night. Although it might have been last night, there a little bit of confusion as to when the first day of Christmas is, so the twelfth is also confused. Shakespeare's play of the same name was probably written to be performed as a close to the Xmas celebration on this night in 1602 . Today, the 6th is Epiphany, traditionally the date the wise men/3 kings arrived in Bethlehem with the presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
In Spain this is when you get the presents which kind of make sense aligning with the arrival of the gift wielding 3 kings.
Twelfth night is also the date that Xmas decorations are supposed to stay up until (how else are the wise men supposed to find their way if you take the star off the top of the tree).
It's supposed to be unlucky to keep the decorations up later than this, but this may date to an older pre Christian European tradition where the tree spirits that lived in the holly and ivy that were brought into the house over the winter solstice had to be taken outside otherwise spring wouldn't come.
Either way, around here, Epiphany/Twelfth Night is a forgotten festival, nothing compared to what it must have been in Shakespeare's time. The shops had their decorations down days ago to make way for Valentine's Day/Easter and the next commercial opportunity.
I love making taking down the decorations as special as taking them down. All tree decorations are wrapped in tissuue paper and bubble wrap. makes it so much exciting to put up next year. 🤗🤗
Ok, so there's something a bit nice coming to decorations that have been well wrapped from the previous year. You're not a big fan of doing what my grandmother used to do? Wrap it in cling film and stick it in the loft. Then you have the tree decorated in about 90 seconds next December
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Some people keep it on for real long
Apparently there was another tradition in Europe which I didn't mention that was to keep them up until Candlemas eve (another forgotten festival) which was on the 1st February. Perhaps if people are feeling particularly lazy, they can quote that tradition!
let's not make it a forgotten festival enjoy each moment of it time will never come back again :) thanks for sharing about this didn't knew about it too
It's never as much fun tidying up afterwards and putting things away as it is bringing them out in the first place. That might be why it's been forgotten.
I never heard this before.it good to learn from you @maxbullion
Hehe my tree is stil standing strong :)
here to went singing '3 Kings' and peple give money to them for singing :)
Hi @brothermic. Where is that? Spain?
belgium my man:)
Thanks for the information actualy I don't know about this before
Many people are celebrating and they have posted too but learning too much from you thanks for sharing
i had never heard about this its good to learn and see about this
I got to know about this today and from Steemit as well :)
Seems like was missing some info in one of the great festival I guess
many people still celebrate it and its a good thing to see today :)