When is Twelfth Night 2025 and what is the history of the tradition?
When is Twelfth Night 2025 and what is the history of the tradition?
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There are two types of people: those who take down their Christmas decorations straight away and those who leave them up for months on end. But if you’re in two minds, there is actually a centuries long tradition that dictates when you should officially un-deck those halls.
![[Packing away after Christmas]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-1124432252.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=509)
It’s pretty simple: you should take down your tree 12 days after Christmas. While for some this may simply be an easy schedule to follow, for Christians it’s about recognising the festival of Twelfth Night, followed by Epiphany. The 12 days of Christmas began on December 25, so Christmas Day.
![[three shiny crowns and a star. Epiphany and three kings day night]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-1453043827.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=528)
Twelfth Night occurs on the twelfth and final night of the 12 days of Christmas – which is tomorrow, January 5. Epiphany takes place the day after on January 6, while Candlemas – another traditional feast day marking when Jesus was presented at the Temple of Jerusalem – isn’t until February 2.
![[Hands of a girl cutting a Christmas fruitcake besides the Christmas tree.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-609839310.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=508)
Twelfth Night is a Christian celebration that marks the end of the 12 days of Christmas and the start of Epiphany. Epiphany is recognised as the day that the Three Wise Men, or the Magi, visited the baby Jesus, and is considered by Christians to be the end of the Christmas season.
Twelfth Night has been a feature of Christmas celebrations for centuries, dating as far back as 597AD. During the early Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Council of Tours (a city in France) marked on this year that Christmas and the 12 days following, up to Epiphany, should be filled with celebration.
