Meaning of Twelfthtide | Babel Free

Definitions

The season including Epiphany (the twelfth day after Christmas) and the evening of the preceding day (Twelfth Night), regarded as the end of the Christmas season; Epiphany itself.

archaic, obsolete

Examples

“Plough Monday, next after that Twelftide is past, / bids out with the plough, the woorst husband is last. / If ploughman get hatchet or whip to the skreene, / maides loseth their cock if no water be seene.”

“The Earl of Shrewsbury to Sir John Talbot. […] Therefore I will propose all the ways that I can think of and desire your opinion which is the safest, whether by a coach that often passes by here in its way to London, but the inconvenience of that is that it goes no more till towards Twelfthtide, or else by my own horses either publicly or privately, or else post.”

“The custom of eating twelfth cake, and especially of drawing for king and queen, on the Epiphany, or twelfth day, or twelfth tide, or old Christmas day (January 6), as it is variously termed, is antique. In the ancient Calendar of the Romish Church, is an observation on the fifth day of January, the vigil of the Epiphany, "Kings created or elected by beans;" and the sixth is called "The Festival of Kings," with the additional remark, "that the ceremony of electing kings was continued with feasting for many days."”

“The cost of the Revels at Christmas, New-year-tide, Twelfth-tide and Shrovetide, all falling within the four months from the end of October, 1573, to the beginning of March, 1573–4, was 672l. 14s. 2d.: it included the expenses of preparations, &c., for plays and masks (each mask having its torchbearers), a list of which, as performed at Christmas, New-year-tide, and Twelfth-tide, is given as follows, in the account of the Office of the Auditors of the Imprest.”

“SUPERNATURAL BEINGS OF TWELFTHTIDE. In the greater part of the north of Germany the belief is not yet wholly defunct, particularly among the peasantry, of the wandering of certain supernatural beings during the twelve days of Christmas; […]”

“[T]he highlight of medieval Twelfthtide festivities was the food, where a variety of meats, sweets, and drinks were served.”

“Vevčani has held a Twelfthtide carnival on 13 and 14 January every year since the middle of the 6th century. The 12 days after Christmas, which in the Orthodox calendar is on 7 January, are meant to be a time when evil spirits are at their most active with regards to wreaking havoc on the coming year.”

CEFR level