We had a small but very happy Christmas, and now it’s the day after Boxing day I guess it should be over but I still feel in a Christmas mood! As it is actually the third day of Christmas, my true-love should give me three French hens… but in this picture I seem to be wearing one of the five golden rings… obviously I had no hens French or otherwise to hand!
The twelve days of Christmas can be called twelvetide or Christmastide and they start on Christmas Day; I always thought they ended on January 6th when you should take your decorations down, but some people think the 5th is the last day so they start undecking the halls. Although we have a holly tree it had no berries this year, maybe the birds ate them – if so they were welcome, it’s been hard year for birds with having been so wet.
Going back to the twelve days, in the old days each had a significance:
- Day 1 – 25th December: Christmas Day
- Day 2 – 26th December: Feast of Saint Stephen
- Day 3 – 27th December: Feast of Saint John the Evangelist
- Day 4 – 28th December: The Feast of the Holy Innocents
- Day 5 – 29th December: The Feast Day of Saint Thomas Becket
- Day 6 – 30th December: The Feast of The Holy Family
- Day 7 – 31st December: The Feast of Saint Sylvester.
- Day 8 – 1st January: The Feast Of the Holy Name of Jesus
- Day 9 – 2nd January: The Feast Day of St. Basil the Great
- Day 10 – 3rd January: Feast of Saint John the Apostle
- Day 11 – 4th January: The Feast of the Holy Innocents
- Day 12 – 5th January: The Feast of Saint Simon Stylites who sat on a pillar for years and years
Lois Elsden 
Are your sure it’s the sun that made you squint–or reading all the wine labels? Ha! You look quite festive.
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Thank you… does my red nose give you a clue??
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