Today is Epiphany! I doubt if people in the west would say Happy Epiphany or Merry Epiphany to each other. All in all, now let's talk about Twelfth Night and Epiphany! However, it is a little ridiculous. You know I haven't even heard of the word: Epiphany before. Exactly speaking, it is just a few years ago that I ran across this word: Epiphany from a mourning English poem at the first time.
We go through silence
And the bridges are aflame for us
Through silence of relatives
Bullying, evil and contempt
We are free people
And we are hated by slaves
We bring them hope
We know, there will be an epiphany
And they will stand side by side
I guess it should be a religious festival of Christian world, and feeling rather fresh but soon forgetting about it. Until recently I watched a Youtube video where the teacher was trying to introduce Christmas culture in brief to his international students/followers. He taught us that Christmas season begins on the 25th of December(Christmas Day) and ends on the 6th of January, Twelfth Night, which reminded me of that poem about Epiphany all of sudden! My heart began to beat heavily. Oh, Epiphany just falls on January 6, ok？ It is so intersting for me to learn that Epiphany is related to Christmas.
I must say that I have known that Chrismas Day is in memory of the birthday of Jesus earlier. But the current question is I have no idea of the origin of Epiphany and what Twelfth Night means, although I vaguely remember that there is a famous comic novel titled "Twelfth Night" by Shakespeare which I've never read. What a coincidence! Before long I encountered a blog named Twelfth Night while surfing online, which inspired me to figure them out and resolve my puzzles. My God, who knows it seems that I just dropped into the rabbit hole like Alice？ If I realize that I would enter such a completely new and complicated Christian world at the beginning, maybe I should have given up translating this blog into Chinese : too many strange festivel names such as Candlemas, Advent, Good Friday, Shrove Tuesday, and Septuagesima，as well as a lot of terms including "chalking the door", solar Julian calendar, etc. Only God knows how it took me several hours in a row to do research about Christian world and check a lot of referrences both in Chinese and English! It is really a special hard job for a person living in the Confucian world all along, having no chance to experience the outside world in reality like me! Thank Godness! It is done! I've really digged a lot by translating this article. By the way, if anyone from the Christian world wants to enter the Confucian world, I highly recommend reading the series of blogs on "Microseason Forecast" from Teacher 
Epiphany is a Christian holiday primarily commemorating the Magi’s visit to the baby Jesus and the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. Eastern traditions, which usually call the holiday Theophany, focus on Jesus’ baptism, seen as the manifestation of Christ as both fully human and fully divine. Western traditions focus on the Magi’s visit, seen as the first manifestation of Christ as saviour of Gentiles as well as Jews. Epiphany is among the church’s oldest and most important feasts. source
主显节主要是为了庆祝东方三博士前来朝拜圣婴耶稣以及耶稣基督受洗约翰的基督教节日。东正教传统上更关注基督受洗，称之为“显灵”，认为是耶稣做为人与神的完美体现。西方天主教则关注三博士的朝拜，认为是耶稣基督做为犹太人和外邦人救主的第一次显现。主显节是教会最古老和最重要的节日之一。
Twelfth Night 第十二夜
From Wikipedia
Twelfth Night (also known as Epiphany Eve) is a Christian festival on the last night of the Twelve Days of Christmas, marking the coming of the Epiphany. Different traditions mark the date of Twelfth Night as either 5 January or 6 January, depending on whether the counting begins on Christmas Day or 26 December.
第十二夜又叫做主显节前夜，是一个基督教节日，指十二天圣诞节的最后一晚，标志着主显节的来临。不同的传统有着不同的日期，或在1月5日，或为1月6日。取决于是从圣诞节日算起还是从12月26日算起。
A superstition in some English-speaking countries suggests it unlucky to leave Christmas decorations hanging after Twelfth Night, a tradition also variously attached to the festivals of Candlemas (2 February), Good Friday, Shrove Tuesday, and Septuagesima. Other popular customs include eating King cake, singing Christmas carols, chalking the door, having one's house blessed, merrymaking, and attending church services.
在一些英语国家中，如果第十二夜后还保留着圣诞树上的装饰挂件，按迷信说法，是被认为不吉利的！同时第十二夜也是一个与圣烛节(2月2日)，耶稣受难节，忏悔日或七旬斋有关联的传统。一些其他的传统则包括吃国王蛋糕🍰，唱圣诞颂歌，在门上书写粉笔字母，祝福家人感恩喜乐，参加教会礼拜活动。
Date
In many Western ecclesiastical traditions, Christmas Day is considered the "First Day of Christmas" and the Twelve Days are 25 December – 5 January, inclusive, making Twelfth Night on 5 January, which is Epiphany Eve. In some customs the Twelve Days of Christmas are counted from sundown on the evening of 25 December until the morning of 6 January, meaning that the Twelfth Night falls on the evening 5 January and the Twelfth Day falls on 6 January. However, in some church traditions only full days are counted, so that 5 January is counted as the Eleventh Day, 6 January as the Twelfth Day, and the evening of 6 January is counted as the Twelfth Night. In these traditions, Twelfth Night is the same as Epiphany. However, some such as the Church of England consider Twelfth Night to be the eve of the Twelfth Day (in the same way that Christmas Eve comes before Christmas), and thus consider Twelfth Night to be on 5 January. The difficulty may come from the use of the words "eve" which is defined as "the day or evening before an event", however, especially in antiquated usage could be used to simply mean "evening".
日期：
在许多西方基督教会传统中，圣诞节被视为圣诞季的第一日。而圣诞季十二天则是从12月25日到1月5日，包括1月5日的第十二夜，即主显节前夜。在一些传统里，圣诞季十二天由12月25日晚的日落时分到1月6日的黎明时分，意味着第十二夜是1月5日晚上。第十二天是1月6日。然而，根据一些只算整天的教会传统，1月5日被视为第十一天，1月6日被视为第十二天，1月6日的晚上则被视为第十二夜。在这些传统里，第十二夜和主显节相吻合。但诸如在英国的教会里，第十二夜是第十二天的前夕(如同圣诞平安夜是圣诞节的前夕一样），因此第十二夜是在1月5日。之所以不尽相同，可能源于对“eve”这个词语用法的解读不一样。通常eve指的是事件发生前一天的白天或晚上，而在古老的用法里，eve仅仅指晚上。
Bruce Forbes writes:
布鲁斯•福布斯写到：
In 567 the Council of Tours proclaimed that the entire period between Christmas and Epiphany should be considered part of the celebration, creating what became known as the twelve days of Christmas, or what the English called Christmastide. On the last of the twelve days, called Twelfth Night, various cultures developed a wide range of additional special festivities. The variation extends even to the issue of how to count the days. If Christmas Day is the first of the twelve days, then Twelfth Night would be on January 5, the eve of Epiphany. If December 26, the day after Christmas, is the first day, then Twelfth Night falls on January 6, the evening of Epiphany itself.
公元567年，Tours教会宣布圣诞节到主显节整个期间应被视为庆祝的一部分，成为圣诞12天，或是英国所讲的圣诞季。十二天的最后叫做第十二夜。不同的文化发展出了一系列特别的庆典方式。这些不同甚至演变成了如何计数的话题。如果圣诞节是十二天中的第一天，那么第十二夜应该在1月5日，即主显节前夜。如果圣诞节后的12月26号是第一天，第十二夜则为1月6日，即主显节日晚上。
The Church of England, Mother Church of the Anglican Communion, celebrates Twelfth Night on the 5th and "refers to the night before Epiphany, the day when the nativity story tells us that the wise men visited the infant Jesus".
在英格兰圣公会中，亦为圣公会的母教会中，人们在1月5日庆祝第十二夜，意指是主显节前夜，而主显节就是基督诞生记里所讲的三贤士朝拜圣婴耶稣的日子。
Origins and history
In 567, the Council of Tours "proclaimed the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany as a sacred and festive season, and established the duty of Advent fasting in preparation for the feast."
Christopher Hill, as well as William J. Federer, states that this was done in order to solve the "administrative problem for the Roman Empire as it tried to coordinate the solar Julian calendar with the lunar calendars of its provinces in the east."
起源和历史：
公元567年，Tours教会宣布从圣诞节到主显节中的12天是一个神圣的喜庆季，以基督降临节斋戒责任为底子来预备庆祝的。克里斯托弗•希尔以及威廉•J• 费德勒声称这样做是为了解决罗马帝国的行政问题，以便阳历儒略历与东部各省的阴历协调起来。
In medieval and Tudor England, Candlemas traditionally marked the end of the Christmas season, although later, Twelfth Night came to signal the end of Christmastide, with a new but related season of Epiphanytide running until Candlemas. A popular Twelfth Night tradition was to have a bean and pea hidden inside a Twelfth-night cake; the "man who finds the bean in his slice of cake becomes King for the night while the lady who finds a pea in her slice of cake becomes Queen for the night." Following this selection, Twelfth Night parties would continue and would include the singing of Christmas carols, as well as feasting.
在中世纪和英国都铎王朝期间，传统上圣烛节标志着圣诞季的结束。尽管后来第十二夜开始标志着圣诞季的结束，且加上了一个相关的新的主显节季，并一直延续直到圣烛节。一个流行的第十二夜传统是在第十二夜蛋糕里分别放入一颗豆子和一颗豌豆。在蛋糕里发现豆子的男人成为当晚的国王，发现豌豆的女人成为当晚的王后。接下来，第十二夜宴会继续进行，包括唱圣诞颂歌和大快朵颐地开吃。
Traditions
Food and drink are the centre of the celebrations in modern times, and all of the most traditional ones go back many centuries. The punch called wassail is consumed especially on Twelfth Night and throughout Christmas time, especially in the UK, and door-to-door wassailing (similar to singing Christmas carols) was common up until the 1950s. Around the world, special pastries, such as the tortell and king cake, are baked on Twelfth Night, and eaten the following day for the Feast of the Epiphany celebrations. In English and French custom, the Twelfth-cake was baked to contain a bean and a pea, so that those who received the slices containing them should be respectively designated king and queen of the night's festivities.
传统
食物和酒水是现代庆典宴会的中心,而所有这些最古老的传统可以追溯到好几个世纪以前。一种叫wassail的潘趣酒水在第十二夜和圣诞节期间会被专门饮用。尤其在英国，挨家挨户唱祝酒歌(类似唱圣诞颂歌)很流行，一直到1950年才中止。在世界范围内，有特别的点心，如tortell/三王节面包🍞和国王饼干会在第十二夜进行烘焙，并在接下来的主显节庆典中吃掉。在英国和法国传统里，第十二夜蛋糕里会放一颗豆子和一粒豌豆，谁若吃到含有豆子的蛋糕，谁就是当晚宴会的委任国王或王后。
In parts of Kent, there is a tradition that an edible decoration would be the last part of Christmas to be removed in the Twelfth Night and shared amongst the family.
在肯特郡的部分地区，有一个传统，圣诞物品中可以吃的装饰物要在最后取下，并且在家庭成员中分享。
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London has had a tradition since 1795 of providing a Twelfth Night cake. The will of Robert Baddeley made a bequest of £100 to provide cake and punch every year for the company in residence at the theatre on 6 January. The tradition still continues.
在伦敦德鲁里巷的皇家剧院，自1795年以来有一个供应第十二夜蛋糕的传统。Robert Baddeley遗嘱里有每年100英镑的馈赠，会在1月6日提供给剧院长驻演出机构蛋糕和酒水。这个传统现在仍在延续。
In Ireland, it is still the tradition to place the statues of the Three Kings in the crib on the Twelfth Night or, at the latest, the following day, Little Christmas. （Little Chritmas is one of the traditional names in Ireland for January 6, more commonly known in the rest of the world as the Feast of the Epiphany. It is so called because under the older Julian calendar, Christmas Day celebrations falls on that day whereas under the Gregorian calendar it falls on December 25.）
在爱尔兰，人们会在第十二夜，或最迟在第二天白天小圣诞日，把三贤士雕像放到婴儿床上。(小圣诞日指的是在爱尔兰1月6日的一个传统节日，外界更普遍称之为主显节。这是因为在旧儒略历法中，圣诞节为现在的1月6日；而在格里高利历法即现在的公历中则为12月25日。）
In colonial America, a Christmas wreath was always left up on the front door of each home, and when taken down at the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas, any edible portions would be consumed with the other foods of the feast. The same held true in the 19th–20th centuries with fruits adorning Christmas trees. Fresh fruits were hard to come by and were therefore considered fine and proper gifts and decorations for the tree, wreaths, and home. Again, the tree would be taken down on Twelfth Night, and such fruits, along with nuts and other local produce used, would then be consumed.
在殖民美洲时代，圣诞花环常常会挂在每家每户的前门上。而当第十二夜取下花环时，花环上可以吃的部分将会和晚宴上其他食物一起被吃掉。这和在19-20世纪时人们用水果装饰圣诞树一致。新鲜水果难以得到，因此被视作精美礼品以及圣诞树，圣诞花环和家庭的装饰物。当圣诞树在第十二夜被取下时，上面悬挂的水果，坚果和其他当地特产也将一并被吃完。
Modern American Carnival traditions shine most brightly in New Orleans. In the mid-twentieth century, friends gathered for weekly king cake parties. Whoever got the slice with the "king", usually in the form of a miniature baby doll (symbolic of the Christ Child, "Christ the King"), hosted the next week's party. Traditionally, this was a bean for the king and a pea for the queen. Parties centred around king cakes are no longer common and king cake today is usually brought to the workplace or served at parties, the recipient of the plastic baby being obligated to bring the next king cake to the next function. In some countries, Twelfth Night and Epiphany mark the start of the Carnival season, which lasts through Mardi Gras Day.
美国现代的狂欢节传统主要源于新奥尔良。在12世纪中期，朋友们聚集在一起开每周的国王饼干宴会。谁若得到带有“国王”标记的饼干，谁就来主持下一周的宴会。通常国王标记是个迷你玩偶娃娃的形状（基督圣婴或基督是王的象征）。传统上，国王是豆子，王后是豌豆。如今关于国王饼干的宴会不再流行，但国王饼干仍通常会被带到工作场地或聚会上，得到塑料娃娃的人则有义务把国王饼干带到下一个聚会上。在一些国家，第十二夜和主显节标志着狂欢季的开始，并持续到狂欢节。
In Spain, Twelfth Night is called Cabalgata de Reyes ("Parade of Kings"), and historically the "kings" would go through towns and hand out sweets.
在西班牙，第十二夜叫做国王阅兵游行，历史上国王们将穿越城镇分发甜点。
In France, Gateau des Rois ("Kings' Cakes") are eaten all month long. The cakes vary depending on the region; in northern France, it is called a galette and is filled with frangipane, fruit, or chocolate. In the south, it is more of a brioche with candied fruit.
在法国，国王饼干可以吃一整月。饼干各地不同。在北方，叫做格雷派饼，里面有杏仁饼，水果和巧克力。在南方，则更像是加了果脯的奶油蛋卷。
Suppression
Twelfth Night in the Netherlands became so secularised, rowdy, and boisterous that public celebrations were banned from the church.
制止：
荷兰的“第十二夜”变得如此世俗化、乃至吵闹喧哗以至于教会禁止举行公众庆祝活动。
Old Twelfth Night
In some places, particularly South West England, Old Twelfth Night is still celebrated on 17 January. This continues the custom of the Apple Wassail on the date that corresponded to 6 January on the Julian calendar at the time of the change in calendars enacted by the Calendar Act of 1750.
旧第十二夜
在一些地方，尤其是英国的西南部，旧第十二夜依然于1月17日庆祝。延续着庆祝苹果酒的传统，在1750年颁布的“日历法”变革时期，仍对应了罗马儒略历的1月6日。
P.S.
Now I get to know that Julian calendar is the so-called Russian calendar/俄历 in China.
现在我知道儒略历就是中国人讲的所谓俄历。
