The setting sun on January 5 brings Twelfth Night, the beginning of the end of the Yuletide festivities and our journey through the Twelve Days of Christmas. While nowadays it is rare to find a family that celebrates Twelfth Night, in years past, Twelfth Night celebrations in many places might rival those of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. By the Fifth of January, though, most of us these days are back to the workaday world, and back to some semblance of ordinary time. Even I, a longtime advocate for a return to Twelfth Night celebrations, have some trouble celebrating Twelfth Night unless it happens to fall on a weekend. The fact is that the contemporary world is tough on holidays like Twelfth Night, and tough on the Twelve Days of Christmas, in general. We rarely are afforded the time and space to celebrate them fully, and so many of them––Twelfth Night, especially––fall by the wayside.
Twelfth Night ushers in Twelfth Day: the Feast of the Epiphany, on the Sixth of January. Tradition tells us that this is the day the Magi arrived in Bethlehem to visit Mary and Joseph and bring their gifts to their newborn child. Seeing the child was their great epiphany, and in turn, ours. Epiphany is a celebration even older than Christmas itself. The Church early on recognized that Epiphany holds the great symbolism that this news of the savior’s birth was for all people. The Magi are not from Judea. They are from distant lands. By journeying for twelve days and paying homage to the child, the Magi show that the message is universal.
These three kings, the Magi, they are the ones who bring gifts to children in Spain and Latin America: as they travel on Twelfth Night, los Tres Reyes Magos deliver their gifts. Their story is wrapped up also with the story of a kindly old witch in Italy. She is called la Befana. She, too, travels on Twelfth Night, delivering gifts to children. The Magi stopped by at la Befana’s cottage on their way to Bethlehem, and they very kindly invited her to join them on their journey. But la Befana, well… she had so much housework to do. She was very busy sweeping her floors, after all! So, she told the Magi, “Grazie, but no. I have far too much to do.” And so the three kings and their retinue set off again on their journey, leaving la Befana to her work. But alas, la Befana felt a tug at her heart, and decided she would join them, after all. But it was too late. She never found the Magi, and she never found the child. Even after flying on her broom in the sky. She had squandered her chance. And to this day, each Twelfth Night, la Befana searches for the newborn child, leaving presents for all the sleeping children she looks in upon.
Just as she swept and swept her cottage floor, la Befana uses her broom to sweep Christmas away for another year. And we, in our house, follow yet another ancient tradition on Epiphany: the Chalking of the Doors, most common in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. On Epiphany night, we will gather up all who are in attendance (which very often is just Seth and me) and we will each take turns writing with chalk on the lintel above the front door the numbers and letters and symbols of a traditional inscription. This year, it will read as follows: 20+C+M+B+26. These are the initials of each of the Three Kings (C for Caspar, M for Melchior, B for Balthasar), punctuated by crosses, blanketed on either side by the year. And here’s the part I tell you each and every year: For me, chalking the door is always accompanied by a silent prayer that no one will be missing when we gather next to write the inscription again. Depending on the weather, the inscription may be there above the door for a month or it may be there all the year through. And though Christmas be gone, still the inscription reminds us of its presence as we pass each day through that portal. The inscription is a magic charm of sorts, protecting the house and those who pass through the doorway, harboring the goodwill and spirit of the Christ Child, and of the Three Kings, and of Old Father Christmas, too.
And so if this is your welcome signal, once Epiphany has passed, to put away Christmas for another year, you are welcome. But if this idea makes you melancholy, well… I bring you tidings of good news: your celebration need not necessarily end here with the close of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Though the major part of the celebration is done, our convivial poet Robert Herrick reminds us that it is fine and good, too, to keep the Christmas greenery in your home for the rest of the month of January. This practice follows the ancient customs of his day, and we, here, each year follow Herrick’s lead. While we may at this point begin to put away many of the more contemporary decorations for the season, it is perfectly fine, by this custom, to keep the greenery, to keep the candles and the stars and the lights on the tree. As long as the greenery is gone by Candlemas Eve, Herrick says, all is well. Candlemas Eve: the First of February, the Eve of St. Brigid’s Day, honoring Brigid, who bridges us from winter to spring. Robert Herrick’s approach is, we feel, a most sensible approach to Christmastide and the wheel of the year (especially if you, like we, are in love with Christmas). This approach connects the Midwinter Solstice we celebrated at Christmas with the halfway point to the Spring Equinox in March, making for, I think, a more natural progression through time and through our Book of Days at this wintry time of year. And I do love a good connexion.
Happy Twelfth Night. Epiphany blessings, and happy Twelfth Day. Peace and love onto you all.
WORKSHOPS
Come learn something new at our Lake Worth Beach shop! New offerings: Pure Bookbinding on Saturday January 31; Pasta Making: Cavatelli on Sunday February 8; Pasta Making: Mambricoli on Sunday February 22. Coming soon (not yet on the website): Pysanky Egg Making on Sunday February 1. CLICK HERE to see what’s new at our Workshops page.
THE SHOP WILL BE OPEN
this Saturday, January 10, during our next workshop. The workshop (another pasta making workshop) is sold out, but you are welcome to come shop during the workshop, between the hours of 11 AM to 2 PM. You’ll find markdowns on Christmas stollen and lebkuchen and chocolates from Germany!
Image: “Adoration of the Magi,” a folio from a French Book of Hours. Ink, tempera, and gold on vellum, circa 1415 [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.
Thank you for your beautiful post and getting me excited for this evening and tomorrow celebrations even though the temperature here will be almost 80°. Hope you have a wonderful evening and day tomorrow and that, even though you’re back at work, God will bless you with a generous amount of time to celebrate.
Thank you, Mary Beth! We’re accustomed to 80s here in Lake Worth, though lately we’ve been in sweaters and long sleeves. When I was a boy, there were Christmas cards here in Florida you could buy and I distinctly remember one of them that said: “The first Christmas tree was a palm.” It was supposed to make us feel better about being in a place that doesn’t look at all like a traditional Christmas card scene. Still, it does feel a bit out of sync to be in shorts and a t-shirt this time of year.
I appreciate my job, too, so let’s just put that out there to the universe, too: I’d love the blessing of a generous amount of time to celebrate, but just as long as God knows I like my work, too! Many thanks, and many blessings upon you and yours, too.