Twelfth Night and Christmas decorations

So when is Twelfth Night really? There are different opinions on this.

According to one opinion it's tonight, the 6th of January. This assumes the first day is the 26th of December and the first night is also on the 26th of December.

According to another opinion it was last night, the 5th of January. This follows the Anglo-Saxon way of timekeeping where night precedes day. The first night was therefore the 25th of December followed by the first day on the 26th of December and the night of the 26th of December was the second night.

I don't suppose it really matters unless one is superstitious about Christmas decorations. They have to be down by Twelfth Night or it's supposed to be bad luck. If you do hold by that, what to do? Down by the 5th or leave it another night until the 6th?

My solution: Since there is doubt over which night is Twelfth Night, take the decorations down on or by the 4th of January. By all opinions, it's before Twelfth Night (being either Tenth or Eleventh Night).

That said, we didn't bother with decorations this year. If we had, they'd have been down by New Year. But some people do like to have them up as long as possible.


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