12 Night

Twelfth Night - Decorations

Twelfth Night (5th January) is when all Christmas Decorations should be removed so as not to bring bad luck upon the home. If decorations are not removed on TwelfthNight, they should stay up all year.
Why is it bad luck to leave the decorations up after Twelfth Night?
Long ago it was thought that leaving the decorations up would cause a disaster. People believedthat tree-spirits lived in the greenery (holy, ivy etc) they decorated their houses with. The greenery was brought into the house to provide a safe haven for the tree-spirits during the harshmidwinter days. Once this period was over it was necessary to return the greenery back outside to release the tree-spirits into the countryside once again. Failure to do this would mean that vegetation wouldnot be able to start growing again (spring would not return), leading to an agricultural disaster. visit projectbritain.com
It was also thought that, if you left the greenery in the house, thetree-spirits would cause mischief in the house until they were released. visit projectbritain.com for more information
Today people still feel uneasy about leaving the Christmas decorations upafter Twelfth Night. Despite decorations now being made of foil or paper, and even though the tree-spirits are long forgotten, the superstition still survives.
Why is Twelfth Night on the 5th January and not the6th (Twelfth Day)?
It is only with our modern understanding of astronomy and time keeping that we start a new day in the middle of the night. To our ancient ancestors, the end of day was when the sunwent down. The oncoming night was the beginning of the next day. Nights were actually part of the holiday i.e. part of the next day. [pic]visit projectbritain.com
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