Forms: see TWELFTH and DAY. The twelfth day after Christmas; the sixth of January, on which the festival of the Epiphany is celebrated; formerly observed as the closing day of the Christmas festivities. (Cf. the twelve days s.v. TWELVE adj. 1 c.)
[c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., IV. xix. 318. Æt Pentecosten & þy twelftan deʓe ofer ʓeochol.]
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. ii. 1, rubric. Ðys sceal on twelftan dæʓ.
a. 1100. [see TWELFTH-EVE(N].
c. 1200. Ormin, 11047. Jesu Crist wass fullhtnedd Rihht o þatt daȝȝ … Þatt twellfte daȝȝ iss nemmnedd.
1389. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 117. Ye sonunday next after ye twelft day.
1455. E. Clere, in Paston Lett., I. 315. On the morow after Tweltheday.
1553. Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 75 b. The feastful day of the Epiphanye commonly called Twelf-day.
1585. T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., IV. xix. 133 b. They do not celebrate the natiuitie of … Christ, but on the twelfth day, vse great feasts and solemnitie.
1662. J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 211, margin. The Armenians blesse the Water on Twelf-day.
1689–90. Wood, Life, Jan. (O.H.S.), III. 320. A great flood about Oxon before 12th day.
1725. H. Bourne, Antiq. Vulg., xvii. The Twelfth-Day it self is one of the greatest of the Twelve.
1863. Chambers’ Bk. Days, I. 61/1. January 6. This day, called Twelfth-day … and Epiphany … is a festival of the Church.
attrib. 1913. 19th Cent., Aug., 320. He had promised the children a twelfth-day cake.
