Twelfth night

Today is the twelfth day of Christmas (as known from the song) and marks the end of the Christmas festive period in the UK, in Sweden we continue until January 13^th. In the days of my youth in the UK, we took down our Christmas decorations the day after, Epiphany. Old tradition suggests that the general rules accepted by society are thrown out of the window on twelfth night, allowing for wild parties and strange happenings, this is the theme for the Shakespearian romantic comedy “Twelfth night” which includes scenes of partying, cross dressing, mistaken identity and much more. The day after, Epiphany or the thirteenth day of Christmas, celebrates the revealing of the newborn child as the messiah. It also marks the arrival of the three wise men from the orient with gifts of gold, frankincense, and Myrrh. These were useful gifts; gold, naturally as raising children is an expensive undertaking. Frankincense and myrrh are both perfumes, which would have been useful as this was long before the advent (sic) of modern nappies.

On their way to Bethlehem, the three wise men were not so wise, and alerted king Herod about the arrival of a potential rival resulting in a purge of baby boys and our biblical hero having to take a detour through Egypt on the way home. This story contains a few incongruities, the census initiated by Quirinius took place in the year 6 AD, much later than the famed birth. King Herod, who was reportedly upset by the birth of a potential rival, died in the year 4 BC. The reference could have been to Herod Antipas, who was born sometime between 20 BC and 6 BC. However we look at it, we should not let a few factual discrepancies ruin a good story.

The reason why I brought this subject up is that there is a Christmas song based on the travels of the three wise men.

By Mario Lanza (who incidentally played Caruso in the film “The great Caruso”, and was a hero of my dad), but written by John Henry Hopkins in 1857 and made famous by The Beach Boys in 1964 – some more incongruities.

As children getting into the raucous spirit of twelfth night, we used to sing alternative lyrics to many of the songs. For this particular song our alternative was:

Another favourite was to change:

Into:

At the Christmas carol service of 1970 at Christ Church, Port Sunlight, both of the above songs were included in the programme. Being very enthusiastic, I sang both loud and clear the alternative versions. After the service, the vicar complemented me on my fine voice, but gave me a good telling off for my choice of lyrics. I think he was quite amused but had to be stern in order to maintain his authority.

With this, I wish you all a happy and prosperous 2024.