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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004getting christmas decorations down!
Anybody give a hint what day the "Twelveth Night" will occur? I hear that in England it is "compulsory" to get your christmas decorations down on 12th night! Is it evening of 6 january, Ephiphany / three kings? Happy New Year!  Signaturebendallpjs at icqmail point com http://homepage.schleswig-holstein.de/bendall/ http://heatherfield-bears.gmxhome.de/ > Anybody give a hint what day the "Twelveth Night" will occur? > I hear that in England it is "compulsory" to get your christmas > decorations down on 12th night! Is it evening of 6 january, > Ephiphany / three kings? > > Happy New Year! Hi Peter, I went to your site and was interested by your page about the circus language "Parlari." http://homepage.schleswig-holstein.de/bendall/parlari.html As you probably know there is a gay language called "Polari" which came into being for similar reasons. I was wondering if they have more in common than the similarity of their names. Here's a link to a Polari site: http://www.chris-d.net/polari/ MC > As you probably know there is a gay language called "Polari" which came > into being for similar reasons. I was wondering if they have more in > common than the similarity of their names. PS: I know you point out some links between the two but I was hoping for more details -- if there are any. >> Anybody give a hint what day the "Twelveth Night" will occur? >> I hear that in England it is "compulsory" to get your christmas [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > >http://www.chris-d.net/polari/ The account given on Michael Quinion's site http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/polari.htm seems fairly accurate. There is half a chapter on it in Peter Trudgill's "Language in the British Isles". Short bibliography at http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/paulb/polari/home.htm All this makes clear that it is all the same language, although how it got from the sailors to the theatricals is a bit of a mystery. SignatureDon Aitken Mail to the addresses given in the headers is no longer being read. To mail me, substitute "clara.co.uk" for "freeuk.com". > The account given on Michael Quinion's site > http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/polari.htm seems fairly [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > All this makes clear that it is all the same language, although how it > got from the sailors to the theatricals is a bit of a mystery. Oh, I don't know! Thanks for the links. > Anybody give a hint what day the "Twelveth Night" will occur? > I hear that in England it is "compulsory" to get your christmas > decorations down on 12th night! Is it evening of 6 january, > Ephiphany / three kings? Twelfth Night is Epiphany. It is the traditional end of the Christmas season, and so is when, if you follow tradition, you take down your decorations. Cheryl Cheryl Perkins filted: >> Anybody give a hint what day the "Twelveth Night" will occur? >> I hear that in England it is "compulsory" to get your christmas [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >season, and so is when, if you follow tradition, you take down your >decorations. By sheer coincidence, the following day is Christmas under the Julian calendar...those who ran the first office I worked in after college referred to the date as "Serbian Christmas" when issuing instructions about how long holiday decorations could remain up....r On 01 Jan 2004, peter bendall wrote > Anybody give a hint what day the "Twelveth Night" will occur? > I hear that in England it is "compulsory" to get your christmas > decorations down on 12th night! Is it evening of 6 january, > Ephiphany / three kings? Yes: the 12 days of Christmas and all that. The tradition as I understand it -- I'm happy for any clarification, of course -- is that one takes down decorations before Epiphany -- that is, on or before the evening of the 5th. SignatureCheers, Harvey Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton for 30 years; Southern England for the past 21 years. (for e-mail, change harvey to whhvs) >Anybody give a hint what day the "Twelveth Night" will occur? > I hear that in England it is "compulsory" to get your christmas > decorations down on 12th night! The EU regulation for that is in the pipeline. > Is it evening of 6 january, > Ephiphany / three kings? > >Happy New Year! And to you! Mike SignatureM.J.Powell > Anybody give a hint what day the "Twelveth Night" will occur? > I hear that in England it is "compulsory" to get your christmas > decorations down on 12th night! Is it evening of 6 january, > Ephiphany / three kings? > > Happy New Year! In some cultures the 6th of January is known as Star Day. http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Zvaigznes-Diena SignatureSkitt (in Hayward, California) www.geocities.com/opus731/ >Anybody give a hint what day the "Twelveth Night" will occur? > I hear that in England it is "compulsory" to get your christmas > decorations down on 12th night! Is it evening of 6 january, > Ephiphany / three kings? Yes, it is. It's not "cumpulsory", but it is the end of the Christmas season, so after that the decorations are no longer appropriate. Steve Hayes hayesmstw@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm > >Anybody give a hint what day the "Twelveth Night" will occur? > > I hear that in England it is "compulsory" to get your christmas [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > It's not "cumpulsory", but it is the end of the Christmas season, so after > that the decorations are no longer appropriate. There's even an idea that leaving them up after Twelfth Night is unlucky. This idea is no doubt heavily promoted by parents who want help with clearing up! But it does connect with the superstition about bringing certain evergreens (I think these are holly, ivy, and mistletoe) into the house only for Christmas. I don't know if it's a genuine rider to the superstition or something I imagined, but I have an idea that if you miss the date for undressing the house you can avoid the bad luck by leaving decorations up until the next Christmas. This comes in handy here, as there's always a bit of coloured paper obstinately drawing-pinned to one of our high beams. Mike. >>>Anybody give a hint what day the "Twelveth Night" will occur? >>> I hear that in England it is "compulsory" to get your christmas [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > always a bit of coloured paper obstinately drawing-pinned to one of > our high beams. I woulodn't know about that part. My father was extremely superstitious and would never have allowed any vestige of Christmas decoration to stay up beyond Twelfth Night. There was also something about not doing laundry on New Year's eve or New Year's Day, because you would be "washing someone out of the family. Since I can't remember which day is forbidden, I avoid doing laundry on either day. SignatureFrances Kemmish Production Manager East Coast Youth Ballet www.byramartscenter.com I have been reading the posts with interest - not only do I know what day to get my Christmas Decorations down - I even got a reference to my web page! I do not know if you know, the german circus uses parlari as well, well they use words from parlari! thank you Peter Bendall Signaturebendallpjs at icqmail point com http://homepage.schleswig-holstein.de/bendall/ http://heatherfield-bears.gmxhome.de/ >I woulodn't know about that part. My father was extremely superstitious >and would never have allowed any vestige of Christmas decoration to stay [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >Since I can't remember which day is forbidden, I avoid doing laundry on >either day. I am out of "whites". I didn't realize that my wife is superstitious. I thought it was just because of the after-Christmas sales. >It's not "cumpulsory", but it is the end of the Christmas season, so after >that the decorations are no longer appropriate. They weren't appropriate in September, either, when the shops put them up. David |
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