Twelve Days of Christmas or Twelve-Tide, are the festive days beginning the evening of Christmas Eve (December 24) through the morning of Epiphany on (January 6).
The traditions of the Twelve Days of Christmas have been largely forgotten in the U.S. This is also heightened by the commercial practice to have "After - Christmas Sales" begin on December 26th and run usually until New Year's Eve.
Today, some celebrants give gifts each of the twelve days, feast and otherwise celebrate the entire time through to Epiphany morning. Lighting a candle for each day has become a modern tradition in the U.S., and of course, singing the appropriate verses of the famous song each day is also an important and fun part of the American celebrations.
Some still celebrate Twelfth Night as the biggest night for parties and gift-giving, and some also light a Yule Log on the first night of Christmas, and let it burn some each of the twelve nights. Some Americans also have their own traditional foods to serve each night.
As in olden days, Twelfth Night to Epiphany morning is then the traditional time to take down the Christmas tree and decorations.
All countries with Roman Catholics have forms of celebrations for the Twelve Days of Christmas. The most popular remaining tradition in this century throughout the world is the cooking of the traditional foods to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. In some Latin countries, a tortell is baked: This is a traditional cake originating from Spain. The recipe varies from the American-style "king cake", but the meaning is the same. Similarly, in France (and French-speaking countries) a " Gallete des Rois" (the tart for the (three) Kings) is baked with a bean or small china figure of the Christ-child inside - the person who finds it becomes "King" and wears a paper crown for the day. In Italy the tradition of "La Befana", whose name is taken from the word 'Epiphany', is very substantial and wide-spread.
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[Source: Perfect Christmas - Posted by FreeAutoBlogger]
