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Twelfth Night was a medieval English holiday.

Remember "The Twelve Days of Christmas"? It wasn't just for nothing. <g>

If you go to google.com and look up Twelfth Night you'll need to add some
words to get a good set of hits (not all the words at once). Try:
England
Christmas
winter holidays
traditions
king of the bean

Gregorian calendar reform

Be looking for mentions of "old Christmas," which is a post-calendar-reform
term. It's in an American version of an older ballad, The Wife of Usher's
Well:

There was a lady, a lady so gay
And she had children three
She sent them away to the north country
To learn their gramaree, to learn their gramaree

[and a few verses pass which aren't all that pleasant,
but she asks God for a miracle...]

It was then Old Christmas Time
The nights were so long and cold
She looked and saw her three little babes
Come a-runnin' down the hall...

In the SE U.S. the immigrants were Protestant, and they were NOT big on the
miracles or the supernatural, but to distinguish the legal holiday Christmas
from "REAL" Christmas (when it would have fallen if the calendar hadn't been
adjusted), they said that the difference was that on "Old" Christmas, at
midnight, the animals would kneel and pray.

I got off the topic, but if you go to www.google.com you will too!! And it
will be fun!!

Sandra