From the solemn to the silly: What exactly are the 12 days of Christmas?
Ainsley Hawthorn | For CBC N.L. | Posted: December 27, 2024 9:30 AM | Last Updated: December 27
Ainsley Hawthorn explores how Christians took the entire nearly two-week period to rest and celebrate
Today you might only know the phrase "the 12 days of Christmas" from the popular carol — the one with the partridge, the pear tree, turtle doves and all the rest. Few people still observe all 12 days, but historically Christians took the nearly two- week period to rest and celebrate.
The idea that there should be 12 days for Christmas arose as a way to reconcile the different liturgical calendars of churches in the eastern and western parts of the Roman Empire.
By the fourth century, Christians in the eastern empire, which spanned the Mediterranean coast from modern-day Egypt to Greece, had taken to observing the Feast of Epiphany on Jan. 6.
From a Greek word meaning "manifestation," Epiphany sometimes commemorated Jesus's baptism, sometimes his birth, and sometimes the visit of the Three Magi, who acknowledged him as "the king of the Jews."
Meanwhile, Christians in the western part of the Roman Empire had adopted Dec. 25 as the Feast of the Nativity, a festival marking the birth of Jesus.
As Christianity became the official religion of Rome toward the end of the fourth century, churches on either side of the empire made both days – and all the days in between – holy days.
12 days of revelry
Counting Dec. 25 as the first day of Christmas and Jan. 5 as the last (before the distinct observance of Epiphany), there were 12 days in total.
During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, all but the most essential labourers took a rest from work for the whole interval. Even monks had a break from fasting: at the Second Council of Tours in 567, the gathered bishops agreed that clerics could indulge from the Nativity until Epiphany because "every day is a festival."
As for the general public, they celebrated with near-continual feasting, dancing, and carousing.
Manor-houses opened their doors to their serfs, hosting banquets for all comers. It was a season of hospitality and liberality, when all ranks of society welcomed guests and gave alms to the less fortunate.
One visitor who could be expected throughout the 12 days of Christmas was the mummer.
In a custom that survives to this day in Newfoundland and Labrador, bands of revellers dressed in animal masks or other costumes wandered from house to house, exchanging entertainment for food and drink.
These exchanges often had a class dynamic, with working-class mummers demanding largesse from local elites. This was just one of the ways social roles were turned on their heads during the Christmas season.
In England, Scotland, and France, wealthy estates appointed a peasant or minor official to preside over the Christmas festivities as the Lord of Misrule or Abbot of Unreason.
Often reigning for the whole 12-day holiday, the Lord of Misrule could order anyone to do anything — even the king himself.
A trio of feasts
Over the course of the Middle Ages, the church attached official feasts to some of the 12 days, and each developed its own folk traditions. The three days after Christmas Day were particularly significant.
Dec. 26 was the Feast of St. Stephen, in honour of Christianity's first martyr. Because he was patron saint of horses, on this day the animals were blessed and, in some places, bled to ensure their health and vigour in the coming year.
In Ireland, the Feast of St. Stephen was popularly known as Wren Day.
According to legend, when Stephen was hiding from his persecutors in a bush, the song of a wren alerted them to his location. For this betrayal, boys hunted a wren on his feast day and paraded its body through the streets.
The custom lives on in places like Colliers, N.L., and Dingle, Ireland, though the wren is now humanely represented by an effigy rather than a real bird.
Dec. 27 marked the Feast of John the Evangelist, the name given to the author of the Gospel of John.
Because John supposedly survived poisoned wine, drinking heartily in his memory was the order of the day. People brought their wine to church to be blessed, then went home and toasted "the love of St. John."
Dec. 28, the Feast of the Holy Innocents or Childermas, commemorated King Herod's massacre of the male children of Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the boy he feared would replace him as King of the Jews.
Despite its grim origins, this feast day was filled with the same topsy-turvy merriment as the rest of the 12 days.
Northern European churches appointed a boy bishop to replace the real bishop for up to three weeks. Fitted with his own miniature robes and mitre, he performed blessings and gave sermons on topics of his choice —one boy preached that his teachers should be hanged.
Building up to Twelfth Night
There was no standard New Year's Day across medieval Europe. Instead, Jan. 1 was the Feast of the Circumcision (yes, circumcision) in reverence of Jesus's bris, which took place eight days after his birth.
At a frolic known as the Feast of Fools, low-ranking clergy parodied the usual rites, singing lewd carols, censing with old shoes rather than incense, and sometimes even leading a donkey into the church.
The 12 days came to a crescendo on Twelfth Night on Jan. 5.
A culmination of the rest of the holiday, Twelfth Night was celebrated with feasting, dancing, music, masques and mummers' plays.
Customary fare included a Twelfth Cake, a spiced fruitcake with one bean baked into it.
Whoever found the tiny surprise was crowned King of the Bean and appointed leader of the night's revels. Sometimes a pea was baked in to select a Queen of the Pea.
In Great Britain, work resumed on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Epiphany.
Not many of us are able to take a full 12-day break over Christmas anymore, but the history of the season is a reminder to stay silly, not take the holiday too seriously, and go easy on ourselves during this festive season.
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