Twelfth Night. Twelfth Night is a festival in some branches of Christianity that takes place on the last night of the Twelve Days of Christmas, marking the coming of the Epiphany. Different traditions mark the date of Twelfth Night on either or, depending on which day one considers to be the first of the Twelve Days: 25 or. A belief has arisen in modern times, in some English-speaking countries, that it is unlucky to leave Christmas decorations hanging after Twelfth Night, a tradition originally attached to the festival of Candlemas, which celebrates the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Other popular Twelfth Night customs include singing Christmas carols, chalking the door, having one's house blessed, merrymaking, as well as attending church services. The main event for this holiday was to have a cake in the center of a table. Every one would take a piece of this cake and two pieces had a dried pea and bean. Who ever had this in their slice would be royalty for one day no matter their position. In most Western ecclesiastical traditions, Christmas Day is considered the First Day of Christmas and the Twelve Days are 25 December - 5 January, inclusive, making Twelfth Night on, which is Epiphany Eve. In older customs the Twelve Days of Christmas are counted from sundown on the evening of until the morning of, meaning that the Twelfth Night falls on the evening of and the Twelfth Day falls on. However, in some church traditions only full days are counted, so that is counted as the Eleventh Day, as the Twelfth Day, and the evening of is counted as the Twelfth Night. In these traditions, Twelfth Night is the same as Epiphany and is also known as the Thirteenth Day However, some churches that fall in the latter category consider Twelfth Night to be the eve of the Twelfth Day, and thus consider Twelfth Night to be on. Bruce Forbes writes: In 567 the Council of Tours proclaimed that the entire period between Christmas and Epiphany should be considered part of the celebration, creating what became known as the twelve days of Christmas, or what the English called Christmastide. On the last of the twelve days, called Twelfth Night, various cultures developed a wide range of additional special festivities. The variation extends even to the issue of how to count the days. If Christmas Day is the first of the twelve days, then Twelfth Night would be on January 5, the eve of Epiphany. If December 26, the day after Christmas, is the first day, then Twelfth Night falls on January 6, the evening of Epiphany itself. The Church of England, Mother Church of the Anglican Communion, celebrates Twelfth Night on the 5th and refers to the night before Epiphany, the day when the nativity story tells us that the wise men visited the infant Jesus. In 567, the Council of Tours proclaimed the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany as a sacred and festive season, and established the duty of Advent fasting in preparation for the feast. Christopher Hill, as well as William J. Federer, states that this was done in order to solve the administrative problem for the Roman Empire as it tried to coordinate the solar Julian calendar with the lunar calendars of its provinces in the east. In medieval and Tudor England, Candlemas traditionally marked the end of the Christmas season, although later, Twelfth Night came to signal the end of Christmastide, with a new but related season of Epiphanytide running until Candlemas. A popular Twelfth Night tradition was to have a bean and pea hidden inside a Twelfth-night cake; the man who finds the bean in his slice of cake becomes King for the night while the lady who finds a pea in her slice of cake becomes Queen for the night. Following this selection, Twelfth Night parties would continue and would include the singing of Christmas carols, as well as feasting. Food and drink are the centre of the celebrations in modern times, and all of the most traditional ones go back many centuries. The punch called wassail is consumed especially on Twelfth Night, but throughout Christmas time, especially in the UK, and door-to-door wassailing was common up until the 1950s. Around the world, special pastries, such as the tortell and king cake, are baked on Twelfth Night, and eaten the following day for the Feast of the Epiphany celebrations. In English and French custom, the Twelfth-cake was baked to contain a bean and a pea, so that those who received the slices containing them should be respectively designated king and queen of the night's festivities. In parts of Kent, there is a tradition that an edible decoration would be the last part of Christmas to be removed in the Twelfth Night and shared amongst the family. The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London has had a tradition since 1795 of providing a Twelfth Night cake.