The Tudor Society
  • 6 January – The Feast of Epiphany or Kings’ Day

    Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, which commemorates the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child. It was an important day in the Tudor calendar, and it brought the feasting and celebrations of the Twelve Days of Christmas to a close. It’s still an important day in many countries today.

    Find out more about Epiphany and how it was celebrated at the Tudor court, and how it is celebrated today, with these resources:

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  • 6 January – Epiphany fun and feasting

    Happy Epiphany! Happy Kings’ Day! Yes, today is the Feast of the Epiphany, the day that commemorated the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child.

    Following on from yesterday’s Teasel’s Tudor Trivia about Epiphany Eve and Twelfth Night Cake, I thought I’d share with you some examples of how Epiphany was celebrated at the royal court. Find out what those Tudor people got up to on Twelfth Night in today’s talk.

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  • Teasel’s Tudor Trivia – Twelfth Night and a yummy treat

    Teasel is busy ironing out her contract with Claire and Tim for future videos, but, in the meantime, she decided that she would allow this one to be filmed.

    In this talk, Claire and Teasel share the traditions they enjoy at Epiphany in Spain, and how these relate to Tudor England and the celebrations Tudor people enjoyed on Twelfth Night.

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  • Twelfth Night and Epiphany video

    In this week's video, Claire talks about Epiphany and Twelfth Night, how they were celebrated in the Tudor and medieval periods, and how they are celebrated today.

    Here are YouTube videos showing the processions of the Three Kings in various Spanish cities on the night of 5th January:

    The Kings come to our village

    Our Roscon de Reyes

    Members can enjoy my talks on court revelry in the Tudor period:

    Notes and Sources

  • Twelfth Night and Epiphany

    I’ve noticed lots of comments from people on social media saying how they’ve taken down their Christmas trees and decorations and got back to normal. For many people around the world today, the Christmas period was over with New Year, but Christmas in the Tudor period ran for twelve days, Christmas Day to Epiphany on 6th January, the feast day which was a commemoration and celebration of the visit of the Magi to the Christ child.

    Twelfth Night and Epiphany were marked with feasting and entertainment. But when exactly is “Twelfth Night”? Is it 5th or 6th January? There isn’t really any agreement over this and an article in The Guardian newspaper examined this question:

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