More Christmas traditions in the UK!
The Twelfth Night is part of the Christian tradition that celebrates the 12 days of Christmas, and can be traced all the way back to the fourth century. The Twelfth Night marks both the end of Christmas and the coming of the Epiphany. (Epiphany is an important day in the Christian calendar that involves feasting to celebrate the first manifestation of Jesus Christ). 12th Night also commemorates the 12 Apostles.
It's considered OK to put the decorations up at any time in December in the UK. Any earlier is viewed as vulgar and in bad taste, but it's OK to put them up in USA in time for Thanksgiving.
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| Queen Victoria and Price Albert gathered with their family around the Christmas Tree, which encouraged the custom of decorating trees in the UK |
But you must take them down on 6th January, as leaving decorations up any later than 12th Night invites bad luck for the coming year.
Susie, I've been reading your posts about Anglican Christmas traditions, since I am the American version of that being Episcopalian, I grew up with my family and church observing these. We were disobedient and never took our decorations down that early though. I think we were willful procrastinators, lol. xxo
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your comment, Aimeslee 😊 Maybe it's that us in the UK are more superstitious!
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