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Twelfth NIght

TWELFTH NIGHT

The “Festive Season”

of winter. The ancient Romans used to hold an annual “Saturnalia” for about a week in the middle of December. During this period all forms of public order were suspended: the law courts and schools were closed, trading ceased, no criminals were executed, and the riotous merry-making was unrestrained. The medieval church throughout Europe adopted this festival, transferring it to the days immediately following Christmas Day (26, 27 and 28 December); on such an occasion, known as the “Feast of Fools”, the clergy in the cathedral towns would elect a boy chorister to be their “king” for the day, whilst they feasted and made mockery of those things that they normally held sacred. In England this celebration ceased with the Reformation in the sixteenth century and its place was taken — so far as Queen Elizabeth and her court were concerned — by the “Twelfth Night” festivities on 6 January.
The regular programme of events ...

Posted by: Joel Chibota

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