Twelfth Night
1
6.7
- noun
- /twɛlfθ naɪt/
:
Noche de Reyes
- Why should it last beyond the twelfth night?
Examples
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She always looks forward to Twelfth Night since it means it's time to celebrate the end of Christmas.
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When I was 9, I played Viola in Twelfth Night.
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That's Twelfth Night.
Fiction book (2002) -
They'd spent the morning taking down the Christmas decorations, as they always did on January sixth, Epiphany, Twelfth Night, and getting Mick ready to return to college.
Fiction book (2002) -
In another city, on Twelfth Night, masquers were chasing a scarlet devil, and when the bride and groom ran suddenly upon me in the street, they withdrew in dread and then, joined by their wedding guests, fell upon me and beat me when I could not run.
Fiction book (1991) -
Many families take down their Christmas decorations on Twelfth Night, marking the end of the holiday season.
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In some cultures, Twelfth Night is celebrated with special feasts and traditions to honor the Epiphany.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'twelfth' and 'night' transparently yield the basic idea of the 'twelfth night' in a sequence or calendar, so a B1 learner would grasp that it refers to a particular night (the twelfth). However, the precise cultural/religious meaning (the eve of Epiphany and the end of the Christmas season) and its status as a named festival are not predictable from the words alone and require background knowledge, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Twelfth Night comes from the old custom of counting the twelve days after Christmas; the twelfth day ended with a special night, so that evening marked the end of the festive season. That's why Twelfth Night is the time people take down decorations or hold a final celebration, meaning the 'end of the Christmas season'.