The Twelve Days of Christmas are the festive days beginning Christmas Day (25 December). This period is also known as Christmastide and Twelvetide. The Twelfth Night of Christmas is always on the evening of 5 January, but the Twelfth Day can either precede or follow the Twelfth Night according to which Christian tradition is followed. Twelfth Night is followed by the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January. In some traditions, the first day of Epiphany (6 January) and the twelfth day of Christmas overlap.
Over the centuries, differing churches and sects of Christianity have changed the actual traditions, time frame and their interpretations. St. Stephen's Day (or Boxing Day), for example, is 26 December in the Western Church and 27 December in the Eastern Church. Boxing Day, on December 26, is observed as a legal holiday in parts of the Commonwealth of Nations. 28 December is Childermas or the Feast of the Innocents. Currently, the twelve days and nights are celebrated in widely varying ways around the world. For example, some give gifts only on Christmas Day, some only on Twelfth Night, and some each of the twelve nights.
Read more about Twelve Days Of Christmas: Eastern Christianity
Famous quotes containing the words days of christmas, twelve days of, twelve, days and/or christmas:
“The tenth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Ten pipers piping,”
—Unknown. The Twelve Days of Christmas (l. 64–66)
“The fourth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Four colly birds,”
—Unknown. The Twelve Days of Christmas (l. 13–15)
“Cassoulet, that best of bean feasts, is everyday fare for a peasant but ambrosia for a gastronome, though its ideal consumer is a 300-pound blocking back who has been splitting firewood nonstop for the last twelve hours on a subzero day in Manitoba.”
—Julia Child (b. 1912)
“Country people do not behave as if they think life is short; they live on the principle that it is long, and savor variations of the kind best appreciated if most days are the same.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)
“Silver bells, silver bells,
It’s Christmas time in the city.”
—Ray Evans (b. 1915)