Today, will you dance, eat a king cake, light 12 candles, or fill your shoes with straw? That’s what Christians in different countries would have been doing on Jan. 6, today, 200 or more years ago, because the 12 days of Christmas have ended, and now we celebrate what the English call Twelfth Night.
Jan. 6 in Catholic and some Protestant traditions is Epiphany, celebrating the visit of the Magi to the Child Jesus (and thus the revelation of the true God to the Gentiles), or Theophany in the Byzantine Catholic and Orthodox traditions, celebrating the baptism of Christ (the revelation of the Trinity). Both of these Biblical events center around divine mysteries revealed miraculously to humans, through nature, spiritual inspiration, and the God-man Christ. For many centuries, Epiphany or Twelfth Night was also a joyous holiday in Europe and the Americas, with many traditions that brought the celebration of the Twelve Days of Christmas to a close.
Twelfth Night, or Epiphany, was at one time actually a bigger celebration than Christmas Day in parts of the English-speaking world, throughout the medieval and Tudor periods, and in colonial America. The 12 Days of Christmas song, by the way, not only has a religious significance, but was used by Catholics in newly-Protestant England as a way to teach their children the faith when being Catholic could land you in jail or on the gallows (thus the ten lords a-leaping were the 10 Commandments, the four calling birds were the four Gospels, the partridge in the pear tree is Jesus on the cross, and so on). Dances, feasting, and alcohol were the order of the day for Twelfth Night celebrations.
Later on, not just Catholics but some Protestants including Anglicans and Episcopalians also celebrated Epiphany, and hence Twelfth Night continued to be celebrated as an important holiday in the English-speaking world for centuries. In colonial America, Twelfth Night was specifically associated with romantic love, as quite a few couples chose to be wed then. In fact, George and Martha Washington’s wedding anniversary was Twelfth Night!
— Catherine Salgado (@CatSalgado32) January 6, 2025
Martha Washington and her cooks were acclaimed for their Christmas cookery. When I visited Washington’s Mount Vernon home, docents told me about an edible “hedgehog” dessert, with the “animal” made of marzipan with almonds for “spines” and red currants for the “nose” and “eyes”. And, like women from multiple European countries, Martha Washington had a special Twelfth Night cake. This cake that served as her anniversary cake called for 40 eggs, 4 pounds of butter, 4 pounds of sugar, 5 pounds of flour, and candied fruit peels and nuts. It must have been massive — but certainly delicious.
England and other nations had their own Twelfth Night cakes; often they were called “king cakes.” One type of king cake had a bean baked somewhere inside of it. If you were the lucky diner to find the bean in your slice, you were supposed to be guaranteed good luck for the year. The older, medieval tradition in England was for the person with the bean to be elected the king or “Lord of Misrule” for the day. If a lady found it, she was the Queen of Misrule. According to Alphonse Chabot, the latter title was part of a rather wild celebration (that might even include mock executions), of the type that faded out of common practice after England was no longer Catholic.
Ireland’s Epiphany tradition is more specifically religious, as the family would light twelve candles or rushlights in honor of the 12 Apostles and pray as the candles melted. Sometimes another candle was added to honor Jesus Himself. If the candle you lighted burned a long time, that was reportedly a symbol of your longevity.
Non-English-speaking countries had their own Epiphany traditions, too. A Dutch tradition was to have public plays. In Spain, children stuffed their shoes with straw so that when the Magi passed by, the camels would eat the straw, and the Magi — just as they did for Baby Jesus — would bring presents (though probably not frankincense and myrrh). The Spanish version of a king cake was a Roscón de Reyes or “twisted roll of kings,” which consisted of “a loaf in the shape of a crown with fruit and nuts on top and filled with chocolate or whipped cream.”
The cake contained either a bean or a gold coin, so I rather prefer the latter Spanish version to the English one! Later, Spanish-speaking countries in the New World including Mexico adopted Spanish traditions for Twelfth Night. Mexican children write letters to the Magi and might go take photos with them in public places like Santa Claus in the U.S.
¡Feliz Reyes! ¿Y sabéis que significa? ¡Roscón!
— Habbo ES/MX (@ESHabbo) January 6, 2025
¿De cuál eres, de mazapán o de nata?
¿y te tocó la haba? ¿O el rey? 👑🫘 pic.twitter.com/jyHoF7d2qx
In France, it seems the Twelfth Night cakes were also “king cakes," or galette des rois. These contained a favor inside, reportedly a porcelain figure from the Nativity, and the finder became king or queen for the day. German king cakes included an almond or a figure of a king instead.
In my family, my mother started our own personal tradition. We don’t open all our presents on Christmas Day but spread them out over multiple days of Christmas and sometimes save one to open on Epiphany. That way we take more time to appreciate our gifts but also have the fun of opening presents not just on one morning but on several! After all, Jesus received His birthday presents on Epiphany (Matthew 2:11).
Try out one of these fun traditions with your family, and Merry Christmas!
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