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Twelfth Night

Good morning.

For some, Christmas is now a distant memory. However, in many Christian calendars, today is the last day of the twelve feast days of Christmas. Indeed, this evening will be Twelfth Night, when many people, whether religious or not, take down the festive decorations in preparation for the return to the ordinary run of life.

Historically, twelfth night was a time for wassailing and feasting, when many of the social rules of well-ordered society could be turned upside down. Lowly people would be chosen to be King or Queen for the night and homage done to them by drinking wassail bowls of ‘Lambs’ wool’, a strong alcoholic cocktail. Rowdy and cheeky behaviour was so rife in the Netherlands that the church tried to ban twelfth night festivities.

It is unclear whether Shakespeare’s famous Twelfth Night play was written as an entertainment for a wassail party. However, it contains elements which channel the temporary social disruption that marked the final evening of Christmas: the puritanical servant Malvolio imagines himself worthy of a noblewoman’s love, and the female Viola spends much of the play pretending to be a man.

From a religious point of view, the twelfth day of Christmas is preparation for the feast of the Epiphany which celebrates the arrival of the wise men to adore the Christ Child. However, I find it hard to be churlish about the human instinct to enjoy some silliness at Christmas’s close. January is a long month, and the joy of Christmas feasting will not come for another year. Perhaps some levity on twelfth night might offer some encouragement through the winter.

God of all good things, help me not to take myself too seriously; to find joy and hope this day and every day.

Amen.