TWELVETIDE - Following Yonder Star

"Old Christmas is past, twelve tide is the last

And we bid you adieu, great joy to the new"

The "Twelve Days of Christmas" are counted in different ways depending on the cultural traditions of the country in which the Yuletide season is celebrated. Celtic custom, counts sunset as the beginning of a new day and according to this method the Twelve Days of Christmas (Twelve Tide) are usually counted from the evening of December 25 until the morning of January 6th which is the Twelfth Day. Following this method of counting the days beginning with sundown, the evening of January 5 is Twelfth Night. In some church traditions, only the full days are counted so that January 5th is the Eleventh Day of Christmas, January 6th is Twelfth Day and the evening of January 6 is counted as Twelfth Night. In ancient cultures and in current church traditions, Christmas, or Yuletide is celebrated as a season rather than just a single day; in some areas of Europe, Yule celebrations begin in November and continue well into February! January 6th is celebrated as the Festival of the Three Kings, or Epiphany and is traditionally regarded as the day on which the "Kings from the East" arrived in Bethlehem to greet the newly born Baby Jesus. We know very little about the Kings - Mathew says only that they were "Kings from the East." Current scholars and historians have concluded that they were "wise men," or Magi - trained in many kinds of knowledge, including astronomy/astrology and no doubt lived and worked in Persia (present day Iran).

"We have seen his star in the East"

The account in the Gospel of Mathew does not say what amount of time passed between the sighting by the Magi of the Star of Bethlehem and their arrival to honor the newborn King, but it is clear that the distances involved presented an undertaking of great magnitude and it is assumed that the Magi traveled by caravan in order to reach their destination safely and as quickly as possible.

"and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them,
til it came and stood over where the young child was"

In the centuries since the gospel of Mathew was first set down and carried into Europe by the missionaries of the Christian church, artists in many countries have seen the "wise men" in many different ways and the interpretation of the story of the Wise Men has expanded as well - although Mathew does not tell us how many Magi traveled to Judea, tradition has set the number at three, probably a reflection of the three kinds of gifts presented to the Baby Jesus - "gold, Frankencense, and Myrrh." Costumes, physical characteristics and style of dress have all changed to reflect the vision and cultural orientation of the artist who painted them; they've traveled by camel, by horse and on elephants, but it matters not whether we see them on camels in the desert, horses in the country side of Renaissance Italy or the exquisitely crafted figures of a Neapolitan creche scene, the Wise Men are instantly recognized as an exotic and mysterious part of the Christmas story.

Byzantine Mosaic

"medieval Kings"

"Procession of the Kings" & Details - Benozzo Gozzili

"Procession of the Magi" - 18th Century Neapolitan Baroque Creche
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Gift of Mrs. Loretta Hines Howard

"Field and Fountain,
Moor and Mountain,
Following Yonder Star."