The Wheel Turns to: Twelfth Night

I have debated whether I should write an article about Twelfth Night.  There is very little to be found about it anywhere that is of a Pagan bent rather than a lesser known Christian holiday relating to the Epiphany.

However, I have, in my own way celebrated Twelfth Night for a many years.  And perhaps, a lot of you have too.  To my mind, Twelfth Night has, in some ways been taken over by our modern celebration of New Year’s Eve.  If you count twelve nights from the eve of the winter solstice, you arrive on or around New Year’s.

Pagan Xmas

I’m cheating a bit here because I both have the holidays on my mind, and because I don’t want to dig out my dictionary to search through the X’s – and I don’t feel like writing about xenophobia (or xylophones).

Despite the implication of the title, this post isn’t going to be about Yule.  This post is solidly about Xmas – or secular Christmas.  To paraphrase the immortal Bart Simpson:

“Lets not forget the true meaning of Christmas. You know, the birth of Santa.”

Poor Santa appears to be somewhat of a controversial figure in modern Paganism.  Considering that he is so whole-heartedly rejected by so many other religions, I think that there should be someone who embraces him.  After all, commercialism isn’t Santa’s fault.