Twelfth Night parties aren’t a really big deal around here. I haven’t heard of any, though there must be a few people who observe the tradition. The big night for winter bonfires in our neck of the woods is New Year’s Eve, when bonfires and nautical flares light up the entire bay with a ring of fire. I suppose it might have been a good night for a party. After all, it lands on a Friday this year and there aren’t a lot of other events. Had I thought of it earlier, I might have proposed that we host a few friends for dinner this evening. Alas, I didn’t have the occasion in my mind.

There are various traditions associated with Twelfth Night, which is also known as Epiphany Eve. First of all there is some variability about the date. The tradition of our corner of Christianity is to count Christmas Day as the first day of Christmas, making January 5 the twelfth day. Some traditions start counting on the day after Christmas, so that the Twelfth Night in those traditions is January 6. I once read that Twelfth Night parties are particularly popular in New Orleans and are celebrated with many of the elements that are a part of the city’s famous Mardi Gras celebrations such as costumes, fancy decorations, and music.

Other traditions include various elements such as gifts wrapped in gold and gold decorations representing the gift of gold brought by the Magi to the infant Jesus. Twelfth Night cakes can be a wide variety of recipes. The tradition of giving fruit cakes for Christmas has its roots in Twelfth Night traditions. In the early days of the American Colonies, it was common to incorporate edible elements in Christmas wreaths which were taken down on the Twelfth Night and the edible portions consumed. In some traditions a hard bean or dried pea would be mixed into the batter of the cake. The person who found the dried bean or pea in their portion would be proclaimed king for the evening and might even be chosen to fill the role of king in a pageant or drama. The tradition of dried peas or beans changed over the years. Now it is common to find a small plastic doll, representing the infant Jesus baked into the cake.

Removing Christmas decorations is a part of some Twelfth Night celebrations. Although a few traditions have faithful people leaving up Christmas decorations until Candlemas on February 2, most include removing the decorations on the Twelfth Night. In some communities, Christmas trees were brought to a common location and used a fuel for a huge Twelfth Night bonfire. I’ve always wanted to observe that tradition, but never have organized such an event, which might be complex in these days of burn permits, awareness of carbon pollution, and dangers associated with a large bonfire.

In England the tradition of going door to door singing Christmas Carols used to be common. Singers would be celebrating the last night of carols until the following Christmas. Homes would share warm Apple Wassail with the singers. The tradition became known as Wassailing and among the songs is “Here We Come a Wassailing.”

The Theatre Royal on Drury Lane in London received a bequest from the will of Robert Baddeley in 1795. The £100 was to be invested and the proceeds provide cake and punch every year for the company in residence at the theatre on January 6. That tradition continues to this day.

In the Netherlands, Twelfth Night parties became so secularized, rowdy and boisterous that the church banned public celebrations.

None of those traditions are on the docket for our household this year. After having loads of Christmas cookies and candies and a special New Year’s cake baked and decorated with the assistance of eager grandchildren, a bit more sensible diet is in store for us. At the age I find myself extra pounds go on easily and come off hard so this is a season of mindful eating to restore a bit of balance. Christmas carols, having been playing in stores since Thanksgiving or before, disappeared from public places on December 26 for the most part. I don’t think we could get enough voices to go caroling on January 5, and our neighbors might not be inlined to open their doors to carolers, and certainly don’t have any Wassail on hand. I’m not even sure what is in Wassail, but I imagine that it contains a pretty strong shot of alcohol. Our Christmas tree is a live tree in a root ball that will soon be going to our son’s farm where it will get acclimated in the greenhouse before being planted on the farm. There are no plans for even a fire in the fire pit. Such events always include marshmallows and s’mores in our family.

We will, however, begin boxing Christmas decorations. It is time to move on. We have enjoyed being surrounded by our eclectic collection which includes a lot of decorations hand-made by children. This year a few popsicle stick snowflakes were added to our tree which was much too small to handle all of our collection. Ornaments are hung from the bookshelves in our study and from various house plants. One of the traditions in our house seems to be that at least one ornament escapes the initial packing and a Christmas box needs to be taken back down from the shelves to receive that ornament days after we thought we had stored all of the decorations for next year. I probably won’t be singing any Christmas Carols, though I still have Jim Strathdee’s “I am the Light of the World” in my head with its Howard Thurman words about the work of Christmas beginning.

Shakespeare’s play, “Twelfth Night or What You Will” wasn’t among the required reading in my school days and I can’t remember ever having read the play or seen it performed. Since most Shakespeare plays are available online, I’ve thought about reading it this year. I think it was written as entertainment for Twelfth Night, though according to Wikipedia it was first performed on Candlemas in 1602. Perhaps Shakespeare intended to get it finished for Twelfth Night and just didn’t complete his work. I could understand such a delay. These days I often don’t finish projects as quickly as I expect.