The thirteenth and last silly dragon

The serpent king rose from his pearly throne,

His invoking spell to intone,

He spun round and round,

Until spell was bound,

And produced a titanic cyclone.

Twelfth Night

Introduction to 'Twelfth Night' (5th January, set in the first half of the 19th century)

Twelfth Night Cake contains a dried pea and bean and is distributed in such a way that a lucky woman finds the pea and lucky man finds the bean and crowned pea queen and bean king aka the lord and lady of misrule (compare Saturnalia). It is their duties to get the party going by telling people to do crazy things including cross dressing and animal guising.

During the 19th century it became normal to take down the festive decorations by Twelfth Night, previously they had stayed up until Candlemas (compare present practices in countries such as Poland and Spain).

In Victorian Britain people would have gathered in a circle about a fire and drunk wassail from a loving cup (wassail bowl), these tended to be large bowls decorated with a foliate pattern and with evergreen leaves woven through the handles around the outside.

The practice was to pass the bowl to ones neighbour with a kiss, the recipient would raise the bowl say 'wassail', people responded with 'drink hail' to encourage imbibing.

Twelfth Night formed the climax to the Yule tide season and brought the festivities to a close, unless you were a farmer when you would not return to the fields until 'Plough  Monday', the first Monday after Twelfth Night.

Twelfth Night

Twelftide, the twelfth day of Yule,

Twelfth Night Cake and festive misrule.

By night fall, all trimmings be down,

The gathering of friends, a night to renown.

Twelfth Night celebrations, now abound,

The lighting of fires, to circle around.

Deck the Wassail bowl, with evergreen,

Receiving the order, of king and queen.

On this night, we drink without stealth,

Old English was hael, to your health.

Drink hail, pass kiss and merry be,

Drink and honour, a wassail to thee.

All drink from the large, wassail bowl,

Festive misrule, all out of control.

Cross dressing and animal guises fool,

What a fine way, to end the Yule.

Copyright Andrew Rea 2007

The twelfth silly dragon

There was a Cockatrice from the east,

That was an unusual beast,

He got up one day,

In the month of May,

And burnt everything up at the Feast.

The eleventh silly dragon

The Cockatrice had to dinner postpone,

Thinking only of goodies he was prone,

A sausage to sizzle,

Some honey to drizzle,

Without food as fuel he couldn't have flown.

The tenth silly dragon

There was a Sea serpent from the west,

That went forth on a great quest,

He was very bold,

But feeling quite cold,

Because in hast he forgot to get dressed.

The ninth silly dragon

The Firedrake got up early from his nest,

To put his strong fiery breath to the test,

He puffed up his lungs,

And stuck out his tongues,

The other dragons were much impressed.

The eight silly dragon

The Firedrake singed his friend’s coloured crest,

Seven firemen placed him under arrest,

Much water was needed,

Before they succeeded,

He said in court that he did it in jest.