# How were the "Twelve Days" of Christmas traditionally observed?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-twelve-days-of-christmas-traditionally-observed/519383>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 29, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-twelve-days-of-christmas-traditionally-observed/519383 "2009-11-29T21:45:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-twelve-days-of-christmas-traditionally-observed/519383/1 "2009-11-29T21:45:34Z")

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Aside from all the partridge-in-a-pear-tree jazz, what did people formerly do during the period spanning Christmas Day to Epiphany? Were those two days simply observed separately, with the days inbetween nothing special? Or was there an extended winter vacation slacking off of the daily grind for that period? Would anyone really have given a loved one a gift a day for twelve days?

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**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-twelve-days-of-christmas-traditionally-observed/519383/2 "2009-11-30T17:51:48Z")

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Well, over on Wikipedia, the history of the twelve days of Christmas, as distinct from the song, is nicely laid out. In the Middle Ages, at least, it was 12 straight days of feasting. I don’t really know how wide-spread the tradition was, but it meshes well with ancient pagan rituals, like Saturnalia, and you can conjecture – it occurs during the shortest days of the year, when time for work would have been limited, anyway.

> **[Twelve Days of Christmas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_days_of_christmas)**
>
> The Twelve Days of Christmas, also known as Twelvetide, is a festive Christian season celebrating the Nativity of Jesus. In some Western ecclesiastical traditions, "Christmas Day" is considered the "First Day of Christmas" and the Twelve Days are 25 December to 5 January, inclusive, with 6 January being a "thirteenth day" in some traditions and languages. However, 6 January is sometimes considered Twelfth Day/Twelfth Night with the Twelve Days "of" Christmas actually after Christmas Day from 2

If you need better info, you can start with the wikipedia references, and see where that takes you.

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**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-twelve-days-of-christmas-traditionally-observed/519383/3 "2009-11-30T19:54:20Z")

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Another tradition that has not completely died out in England is [Plough Monday](http://www.ploughmonday.co.uk/). This was the first Monday after Epiphany and was the day that farm-workers went back to work after their 12 days break. This mid-winter break was probably their only time off in the whole farming year.

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**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-twelve-days-of-christmas-traditionally-observed/519383/4 "2009-12-29T00:21:20Z")

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I missed this thread earlier, but it’s still topical.

The period between Christmas and Epiphany was, and still is, marked by the celebration of the feasts of the _comites Christi_ (‘companions of Christ’), those saints whose feastdays fall in the week following Christmas:

- Saint Stephen on 26 December;
- Saint John on 27 December;
- the Holy Innocents on 28 December (‘Childermas’);
- Saint Thomas Becket on 29 December;
- Saint Sylvester on 31 December.