My Foolish Feast

I have long believed, without evidence beyond my laughable wit, that the Twelve days of Christmas were twelve days in duration.
Elaine informs me otherwise:

My source (Matthews, J. 1998. The Winter Solstice) says that

Christmas Day is just Christmas Day and thus = Day # 0
Day #1 = St. Stephen's Day a.k.a. Boxing Day
Day #2 = St. John's Day a.k.a. Mother Night
Day #3 = Holy Innocent's Day or Childremass
Day #4 = The Feast of Fools
Day #5 = Bringing in the Boar
Day #6 = New Year's Eve a.k.a. Hogmanay
Day #7 = New Year's Day, a.k.a. The Kalends of January
Day #8 = Snow Day
Day #9 = Evergreen Day
Day #10 = St. Distaff''s Day
Day #11 = Eve of Epiphany, a.k.a. Festival of the Three Kings
Day #12 = Epiphany, a.k.a. Twelfth Night

also note that Matthews considers the Winter Solstice to last two days, 12/21-22

So, happy fourth day all even though five days have elapsed since Christmas.
I have no problem adding twelve to zero to produce twelve, the math works. But I think there may be some objections in making Christmas a nothing day.
--ml
tags: Feast of Holidays, Twelve Days of Christmas