When is Twelfth Night?

The date of Twelfth Night has and still does confuses people. It is important for us to know when Tweflth Night is because it is the time when all Christmas decorations have to be taken down by.

We received the following message from Brian, who has an answer to the confusion:

It is only with our modern understanding of astronomy and timekeeping that we start a new day in the middle of the night. We have all been taught this for generations so it seems logical to us and the resulting confusion is all our fault. However to anyone not so indoctrinated it would make no sense whatsoever. It is far more obvious that the day ends when the sun goes down and that the oncoming night is the beginning of the next day. To our ancient ancestors that was true of every day, not just special holidays. So there was no intention on anyone’s part of celebrating the previous night as a holiday. The night was actually part of the holiday. Nor would there be any significance for 6pm, especially in northern Europe where it would be hours after sunset. Rather December 25, Christmas, started at sunset on December 24. They considered this to be Christmas Evening (or Christmas Eve). Christmas would then continue until nightfall on the 25th which started St..Stephen’s Day, the first of the twelve celebratory days of Christmas.

Likewise the Twelfth night after Christmas would have been to them the evening starting January 6, Epiphany, the twelfth and final day of the Christmas season.

Brian