[Peace-discuss] Twelfth night; or, what you will

[C. G. Estabrook]

>From 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/05/in-praise-of-twelfth-night>:

An evening's wassailing not being what it once was, Twelfth Night has declined 
into one of the less widely celebrated of the ancient festivals. All the same, 
Twelfth Night is still one of the most welcome days in the calendar, in spite of 
the absence of agreement about when it actually falls. If you take the view, as 
some do, that the evening of 24 December marks the start of Christmas, then last 
night, 4 January, was the twelfth. If you go with 25 December as the first 
night, as most do, then Twelfth Night instead falls this evening, 5 January. 
Many nevertheless continue to regard 6 January, the feast of Epiphany, as 
Twelfth Night. Yet if there is little concord about when Twelfth Night actually 
falls – and perhaps it hardly matters – there is at least a healthy consensus 
that it marks the decisive end of Christmas. Twelfth Night, whenever observed, 
is the universally understood moment when the decorations come down, the cards 
are removed and the tree is stripped and banished ... Twelfth Night offers one 
last chance for revels and misrule. Shakespeare, who understood this best, 
subtitled his transgressive play What You Will. Tomorrow, though, the normal 
order resumes...