Christmastide - Old Twelfth Night on the Eve of MLK Weekend

Friday, January 17, 2025

This has been quite a week. Full moon on Monday, bitter cold earlier in the week which kept the kids indoors for recess which got them rather unregulated, assessments all week which got them even more unregulated, and Dale announced his retirement. Needless say I'm exhaused. 

Very uneventful evening tonight which was fine by me since I had about as much energy as a burnt out lightbulb. Frozen pepperoni pizza for dinner and Big Bang Theory on the TV. 

Old Twelfth Night

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Lit some candles for Old Twelfth Night. 

Had an apple tart for dessert.

Twelfth Night occurs on January 17 and is still celebrated in some rural communities in Great Britain. 

MLK Weekend - Old Twelfth Night

Monday, January 17, 2022

Laid back afternoon once home from the rally. 

Had an apple as a nod to Old Twelfth Night.

Listened to Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.

Simple dinner of burritos.

And we watched episodes of the old Lucy Show on Amazon Prime. What a blast from the past since I haven't seen it since I was a kid. 

MLK Weekend 2021 - Old Twelfth Night: Dinner and Music

Sunday, January 17, 2021

Had lots of time to listen to music. Acknowledged our place in the season with a couple of my favorite albums. 

During cocktail hour I found some wassail songs to listen to in honor of Old Twelfth Night. 

Dale and I made a lasagne for dinner. For dessert we had the gingerbread Bundt cake (previous post). 

MLK Weekend 2021 - Old Twelfth Night: Gingerbread Bundt Cake

Sunday, January 17, 2021

Quiet and restful day today. Was checking some old blog posts and realized today is Old Twelfth Night. According to Karen Burns-Booth's blog, Lavender & Lovage, "Today, the 17th of January, is Old Twelfth Night, a date that is still celebrated in many rural communities throughout Great Britain, particularly in the  English counties where apples and orchards are prevalent, mainly Suffolk, Kent, Somerset, Herefordshire, and Devon, and, where wassailing the apple orchards and trees is still celebrated. These English counties are also the main cider (cyder) and apple juice producing areas of the U.K. too." The different date all has to do with the conversion of the old Julian calendar to the Gregorian one. For me it comes down to having and excuse for one more celebration to recognize during the cold, dark winter months. 

Since I didn't get to making a cake for Twelfth Night on the 5th I decided I'd make one for tonight, Old Twelfth Night. Something with apples probably would have been more appropriate but since I didn't get to make anything gingerbread this Christmastide I decided to go with that. A number of years ago I tried making a gingerbread cake with a house-shaped Bundt pan from Nordic Ware. I didn't turn out right. It didn't quite bake through. This time I decided I'd try it but with a regular Bundt pan in case the odd shape of the previous one had something to do with the shape of the pan. 

It looked okay when it came out of the oven. 

However, upon turning it over I discovered the result wasn't quite what I'd hoped for. What you see on top of the cake was stuck to the pan. Although the recipe recommended baking it for 55-65 minutes I kept it in for 70.  I guess I didn't use enough cooking spray. 

The cake ended up being rather crumbly. In reviewing the recipe afterward I realized I only used two eggs instead of the required four so this is most likely the reason for that consistency. Regardless, it still tasted fantastic and a huge amount of whipped cream covered up the imperfections. Maybe I'll retry making it at Valentine's Day keeping in mind the cooking spray and the eggs. 

MLK Weekend 2020 - Music, Wassail, Old Twelfth Night, Virgin Mary, and Deviled Eggs

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Woke up and listened to some music appropriate for a winter morning. 

Interesting discovering about Old Twelfth Night a couple days ago. After reading about it I decided to see what kind of wassail related songs I have.

I searched my Apple Music library and of course came up with Somerset Gloucestershire Wassail by The Kingston Trio which I've known and loved for years.

There's also Here We Come A-Wassailing performed by Bonnie Rideout  on the A Scottish Christmas album. It's a medley with another song called Bottom of the Punch Bowl which is not a song I'm familiar. 

Dale and I worked out with weights this morning at the gym. I weighed in and I'm 6 pounds lighter than I was on January 1st. This dry January is paying off. I had a Virgin Mary instead of a Bloody Mary for brunch at the Red Stag. 

Warren and Gary came over for dinner tonight. Warren brought some deviled eggs and Dale made Texas chili. We also watched a John Melaney comedy special. Very funny stuff. 

MLK Weekend 2020 - Old Twelfth Night

Friday, January 17, 2019

Dale came home around noon and the snow started in at 1:30 p.m. 

Did some reading today in Nigel Slater's book, The Christmas Chronicles. He writes, "Those sad souls who fail to appreciate the cold months might feel better when they remember that the winter solstice was once the time of much making merry. The festivities lasted from harvest until Candlemas. Drunkenness, debauchery and feasting were the rules of the day. A far better idea than sitting around moaning about the cold and rain." (p.433)

There's no debauchery going on around here and certainly no drinking due to our dry January. However, according to Slater, today, the 17th, was Old Twelfth Night.

According to Wikipedia, "In some places, particularly southwest England, Old Twelfth Night is still celebrated on 17 January. This continues the  custom of the Apple Wassail on the date that corresponded with 6 January on the Julian calendar at the time of the change in calendars enacted by the Calendar Act of 1750."