Set Your Sights on Twelfth Night!

As I type this out, a blizzard is raging. Yes, that's the word, although "rage" seems to be a hot word and this is a very cold storm. Lightning, hail, and wind are just outside, and the sound of the storm is most peculiar. I have never been in a blizzard. I've barely even seen snow. This is most peculiar weather.

Five years ago, and even more, I had a very active blog here. One of my most popular posts was about Twelfth Night and some lore associated with that day.

Getting ready for Twelfth Night can help some folks with the post-holiday sadness that sets in. Twelfth Night itself is so brief and simple that it can't cause a second bout of that let-down feeling, so no worry about that.


First of all, it begins at sunset on January 5th. Many will recognize this as the night before the Feast of the Ephiphany, on January 6th.

Like many holidays, Twelfth Night is very old. Anything that starts at sunset tends to be old, very old. It predates Christianity. Its roots are very deep, and perhaps that's why it resonates with me and other Olde Souls.

If you want to celebrate Twelfth Night, don't take my version as the "true" version. This is just what I do, handed down to me and also from my reading of many olde books.

I tend to be wordy, dearies. If you don't care to read the blather below, I am making a cheat sheet for ye right here for the rest of today's post:

• Get a new broom and keep it ready for the stroke of midnight when January 5th becomes January 6th
• Keep back some greenery you used in decorating, or some pinecones, corrugated cardboard, or plain paper, like paper bags.
• Get a candle.

Okay, the long-winded version:

Your assignment: Get a new broom. Don't use it yet. Try for a well-made straw broom, if such is available to you.

Don't use the broom yet. Just keep it there and safe (ALWAYS HANG A BROOM. DON'T EVER REST A BROOM'S BRISTLES ON THE FLOOR, DEARIES. Prop it up on the stick, bristles up, if you have no way to hang it).

By Twelfth Night, not a bit of Christmas must remain. It all must be packed up by then. So, pack it up now, or pack it up by January 5th. If the sight of half-done things upsets you, then do it all in a day. If not, you can take your time. 

The time to address things you want to change is not right in the middle of a funk. Fight that battle later. Don't beat yourself up if you are someone is upset by "flux" or if you are one who gets the Post Holiday Blues. WORK ON WHY it bothers you LATER, not right in the midst of this battle this year. Your assignment right now is to get through a blue feeling. Depression is dangerous. It's not the time to be hating on yourself or upbraiding yourself!

Okay, back to Twelfth Night: KEEP any real greens you may have used in decorating. If you used a real tree, snap off some small branches. Place all your greenery in a small heap in a basket, in a box, by your back steps, etc. Just out of the way. We're going to burn those greens on Twelfth Night! 

Now, if you don't have a place for a bonfire, and you don't have a usable wood stove or fireplace, don't fret. Just place the greenery in your compost area and that counts the same. If you don't have a compost area, then just put a Bird Bell or a suet block atop the greenery in an old flower pot. 

No greenery was used? Then if you have a place for a fire, you are going to burn a handful of something leftover from Christmas that is safe to burn, like cinnamon sticks, raffia, paper bags, plain corrugated cardboard. If you have none of that, either, then you are going to burn a candle!

Tomorrow: Finishing up your Twelfth Night preparations, and my little LIGHTED BIRDHOUSE idea.