Twelfth Day

Today is the Twelfth Day of Christmas (and my true love gave to me…!). A year ago, I learned that the Twelfth Day of Christmas is on the sixth day of January which is Epiphany (or Loppianen in Finnish). Traditionally in Finland (and Denmark, I’ve just been told) this signals the end of Christmas and the decorations come down. We still have all our Christmas decorations and tree up in honour of our good friends from Denmark, who arrived Wednesday for a week’s visit. We are having lots of fun catching up and being tourists, so the decorations will be up until they leave. That’s unusually late for us, but it’s in keeping with our festive mood and is a wonderful way to hold back winter’s darkness and dreary rain a bit longer.

A big welcome back also to mirabilis after a long absence! Read her timely and interesting post on Epiphany and Befana.

And for Finnish readers, Anita Konkka discusses Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

January 6, 2006 in Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric by Marja-Leena