The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-06
TWELFTH NIGHT REvELRY.
Some of the Festivities That Are APP
proprfate for It's Celebration.

The custom of celebrating Twelfth
Night is becoming more popular in t4is
country with each year, and the festiv-
tiles. as a rule, are, based upon some
| ceremonial of ancient times, says the
New York Tribune. The festival is cele-
brated OH Jan. 6, or twelve days after
Christmas known in the religious world
as the Epiphany This word being
Greek, establishes the fact that the festi-
val is of Eastern origin, and in the
Greek church it has always been held
the most important next 10 Easter.
1t is customary in giving house part
les at this season to invite the guests
from Christmas until Twelfth Night,
when the festivities are brought to a
close with an old time masque. The
! Twelfth Cake, a long established feature
OF the day, is prepared, and within ii is
hidden a bean; At the opening of the
masque, the cake is cut. and divided by
lot, and the one who gets the piece con-
tanning the bean is crowned the king or
the queen, and Immediately chooses a
King or queen for partner. AS soon
as the king and queen are announced
| they. are under the constant observation
of their subjects and whatever they do
| is Immediately commented upon. In a
| short time there is a perfect uproar.
| The king drinks THE queen speaks
or her majesty laughs. etc. This is
! Kept up for q time. There arc also
games. music and dancing.
Frequently there will be two cakes,
| one for men and one for women, and
then the latter will contain a coin, and
! as the queen. The royal persondges are
conducted with mock ceremony and
| pcnlp to the thrones, which are arranged
| with effect on a, daiSs and there they
| hold court, imposing all kinds of absurd
penalties on culprits for imaginary
| crimes.
The costumes worn at the masque are
quaint and greteSque rather than gorgeous
| or eXtraVagart A pleasing feature is to
| present a short costume play Of a quaint
and old time theme.
| Twelfth Night cards in olden times
/ often assigned the characters to be as
| suned. The cards could be bought in
| packages, and each illustrated a charac-
ter. These were put into a bag, ami were
drawn out, by the guests in turn.
| has hidden within it coin, a ring and
| a thimble. The coin indicates wealth, the
| ring welded happiness. or marriage with
IN the year, and the ithimb1e single bless
| edness.
No Twelfth Night gathering is com.
! bowl. Wassail, in the sAnglo-Saxon in
| dicated "be wen,' equivalent to Here's
| to your health.H. The bowl; was often of
massive silver, and was frequently deck
! ed with ribbons and sprigs of rosemary.
| The component parts of its good cheer
| are ale, sugar, nutmeg and roasted APP
| pies, mixture which originally went
| under the name of "lamb's WOOL The
apples are roasted hot and sizzle in the
ale The custom Of "wasSailing'' has be-
come Of late years the popular cere-
mony- of the .ioSingsseN The hagon
is handed Inst TO the master who, stand
ing, drinks to the general health. IS
announced by the toastmaster, then
passes it to his neighbor on the left who
drinks, standing, passing it to his next
nejghbor in like manner, and 80 on until
all have drunk