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Why is it the TWELVE days of Christmas when there is only one day of Christmas?
Question
#34063. Asked by PUZZLER. (May 20 03 8:58 PM)
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Gippler
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The West decided to celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th and the visit of the three wise men on January 6th thus Christmas extends from Dec 25 to Jan 6 (i.e. twelfth night).
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Gnomon
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The first day of Christmas is 25 December. The last day of Christmas is 6 January. This actually means that there are 13 days of Christmas, not 12. The song made a mistake.
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Jimmy
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Gnomon, I beg to disagree. The 6th of Jan. is Ephiphany and is the first day of the new liturgical season of Ephiphany. The last day of the Christmas season is the 5th of Jan. which is the twelvth day of Christmas.
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jackolant
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Not so. Epiphany is the Old Christmas Day. You could also describe days in Advent as being in the Christmas period.
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gmackematix
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No, Jack, "Advent" derives from the Latin for "coming" and is the run-up to Christmas.
Strangely, it is very close to the word "Advert" which is appropriate for such a commercially important festival!
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griffinj
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"Twelfth Night is a Christian holiday celebrated 12 days after Christmas, on January 6.
It marks the end of the Christmas season. Christians also observe the Feast of Epiphany
on January 6. In Western Christian churches, this holiday commemorates the coming of
the wise men to the Christ child. Among Eastern Christians, Twelfth Night celebrates the
baptism of Jesus. In Italy and Spain, children still receive gifts on this day in
remembrance of the gifts the wise men brought to Jesus. In the Greek Orthodox Church,
the Blessing of the Waters takes place on January 6. In the ceremony, divers retrieve a
cross thrown into a body of water by a priest.
Twelfth Night was originally celebrated in the Middle Ages at the end of the 12 days of
Christmas. William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night was possibly first performed
on January 6."
 http://www.annieshomepage.com/twelfthnight.html
"According to present [1907] usage, Advent is a period beginning with the Sunday nearest to the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (30 November) and embracing four Sundays. The first Sunday may be as early as 27 November, and then Advent has twenty-eight days, or as late as 3 December, giving the season only twenty-one days.
With Advent the ecclesiastical year begins in the Western churches. During this time the faithful are admonished :
1) to prepare themselves worthily to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord's coming into the world as the incarnate God of love,
2) thus to make their souls fitting abodes for the Redeemer coming in Holy Communion and through grace, and
3) thereby to make themselves ready for His final coming as judge, at death and at the end of the world."
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01165a.htm
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