New Year’s Celebration in the Regency Era

Celebrating New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in the Regency was not as we picture the celebrations today. Those were two days of what was (and still is to a lesser extent) Twelfthnight.

Twelfth Night is a Christian festival on the last night of the Twelve Days of Christmas, marking the coming of Epiphany on January 6th. Historically, it was a time of revelry and feasting, often featuring games, costumes, and a “King of Misrule” crowned by a coin hidden in a cake, where societal norms were inverted and roles were temporarily exchanged. 

The Holiday

• Date: Twelfth Night is the night before the Feast of the Epiphany. Depending on the tradition, it is celebrated on January 5th or January 6th. 
• The Twelve Days of Christmas: Christmas is not just December 25th; it is a season that begins on Christmas Day and concludes on the Epiphany. Twelfth Night marks the end of this season. 
• Epiphany: On the following day, Epiphany, Christians celebrate the arrival of the wise men (Magi) who brought gifts to the baby Jesus. 

Historical Traditions

• Revelry and Misrule: The holiday was associated with feasting, parties, and inverted social roles, where servants might become masters for a night, and vice versa. 
• Twelfth Night Cake: A rich cake containing a bean was baked, and whoever found the bean in their slice was crowned the temporary “King” or “Queen” of the festivities. – Find more at History of Twelfth Night Cake on English Heritage.
• Costumes and Tricks: People would wear wild colors and costumes, and practical jokes, such as hiding live birds in pie cases, were common. 

Connection to Shakespeare

• William Shakespeare wrote a famous play titled Twelfth Night, which reflects the festive, topsy-turvy atmosphere of the holiday season. 
• The play involves themes of mistaken identities, confusion, and mistaken identities, mirroring the spirit of the celebration where social roles were disrupted. 

“Celebrating New Year’s Day also held superstitions as a central part of the festivities. The family or gathering would sit around in a circle before midnight and when the clock began to strike the hour, the head of the family would go to the door and open it, “ushering out the old, and bringing in the new”. [See my article on “First Footing” on Monday] The more superstitious would cleanse the house of ashes, rags, scraps and anything perishable so that nothing was carried over from one year to the next, in order to preserve their good luck and banish any poor luck.

“One thing that seems to be consistent is the emergence of the New Year’s Eve tradition of singing Old Lang Syne, which literally translates to “old long since” or colloquially to “days gone by”. After a long tradition of being sung during the Scottish celebration of Hogamany on New Year’s Eve, the Scottish poet, Robert Burns, collected and wrote down the lyrics in 1788 and it was first published in 1796. It quickly spread to much of the English-speaking world and is now sung at the stroke of midnight instead of when the guests leave the party.

“Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year and glad to be counting so many of you among those “old acquaintances”! – A Regency Primer on Christmastide and New Year’s