Celebrating 12th Night

Aline writes: I bet you didn’t know that the traditional celebration of 12th Night (6 January) was once bigger than Christmas. This was one of the many interesting tidbits I learned at the celebration of 12th Night at the Geffrye Museum. You can see the crowd beginning to gather in the garden to celebrate the traditional ending of the Christmas season and the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus.


The celebration began with a brass band


You can see that there was a good size crowd, even though it was pretty chilly outside.


We all had a nice cup of mulled wine and a piece of 12th Night cake (a kind of fruitcake).
I took a picture of the goodies before I dug in


But the 12th Night cake isn’t just something yummy to eat. One tradition of 12th Night is the crowning of a king and queen for the night, who then run the household. The boy or man who finds the bean hidden in the cake becomes the king, and the girl or woman who finds a pea becomes the queen. We had a king and queen for our celebration, chosen by finding a gold or silver coin (much easier than trying to find a bean or a pea in a fruitcake!) Here they are with the announcer. You can see their laurel wreath crowns. We all curtseyed to the queen and bowed to the king.


Then lots of Christmas Carol singing, a favorite English pastime (by this point, I even know the alternate tune to Away in the Manger.) And, of course, it seems that at every English celebration there is always either a fire or fireworks. 12th Night is a traditional time to burn the holly and ivy that have been used as decorations, so it was a bonfire this time. As you can see, it burns really brightly!



I really love having an actual end to the Christmas season, where you take down the decorations and burn them. It's so satisfying somehow!