Those Twelve Days Of.

Day Lewin

When exactly are the 12 days of Christmas?
What do you consider to be Day 1?
When does it start?
When do they end?
Is the 6th of January included, seeing as it is the day the Kings finally go into the Crib? Indeed, it is a significant day of the celebrations in many cultures.

Come to that, why twelve? Could they have made it a round two weeks if they could have thought of two more verses for the song? (Suggestions welcome)

There's an Advent Calendar - why not have a Christmas Calendar too?

Standing by for answers!

:-)

DL

Loughc

When exactly are the 12 days of Christmas?
What do you consider to be Day 1?
When does it start?
When do they end?

The 12 days of Christmas are very much subjective and a tradition that is absolutely dying out as the church loses it grip on society more and more.

For me the 1st day of Christmas is the 26th and the last is the 6th. Christmas Day is it's own day and not a part of the 12 days IMO.

Is the 6th of January included, seeing as it is the day the Kings finally go into the Crib? Indeed, it is a significant day of the celebrations in many cultures.

For me it is, I'll be leaving my decorations up and lit until 11.59pm on the 6th.

Come to that, why twelve? Could they have made it a round two weeks if they could have thought of two more verses for the song? (Suggestions welcome)

The tradition of the 12 days came before time was strictly managed in days, weeks,etc, it was more likely based off a moon rotation possibly from full moon to half moon or something like that. And for all we know the original pagan festivals may have lasted much longer than 12 days.

There's an Advent Calendar - why not have a Christmas Calendar too

You're right there really should be one, but obviously it's not a marketable event as it's purely linked to a religious event and would likely alienate itself to other religions and non believers, the Advent calendars in the shop have nothing to do with Advent itself and more to do with consumerism.

Great thread for discussion, I love hearing peoples thoughts on these things.

odyssey06

I think the "days of christmas" for me start when I finish e.g. school or work and end on my return.

So in school days it was probably bounded by Christmas Eve to January 6th?
That doesn't come out at 12 days though...

January 7th seems to be the date that Eastern churches celebrate Christmas:
https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/whenchristmasiscelebrated.shtml

Day Lewin

odyssey06 wrote: »

So in school days it was probably bounded by Christmas Eve to January 6th?
That doesn't come out at 12 days though...

Yes, if you include Christmas Eve and the day of the 6th, it's more like 14 all told: a neat two weeks.

I suppose the "Eve" is really a kind of preface or preliminary day, not one of the Season itself.
But the 6th definitely should be! Whats the opposite of an Eve - a Post?

21Savage

Christmas starts the 23rd and ends the 7th(Little Christmas)

But in reality, it's more like 22nd(Last day for schools) and ends like 2nd of January. The TV schedule dictates it(or it did in the past) but it can still feel like Christmas for 1 more week. When I was a kid the FA Cup Third round weekend still felt like the Christmas period.