January 5: Twelfth Night and Mungday

January 5 is a day of importance in two different cultures. While Christians celebrate the Twelfth Night having a merry time, the Discordian beliefs mark the fifth day of the New Year as Mungday.

January 5 in the Erisian Calendar: Mungday

The Discordian calendar is in alignment with the commonly used Gregorian calendar. The 365-day year has five seasons of equal duration. The fifth day of each season is an Apostle Holy day, named after the five apostles of the Discordianist religion. According to this system, the fifth day of the first season, i.e. Chaos, which falls on January 5, is an Apostle Holyday. It is called Mungday (named after Hung Mung).

Hung Mung, a character from ‘The Writings of Chuang Tzu,’ an ancient Chinese book, was recognized as a Five Star Saint by Discordianism. This ancient Chinese sage was the Discordianism’s official missionary to the Heathen Chinese. He devised ‘The Sacred Chao.’ The patron saint’s name can be translated as “foolish goose”.

January 5: Twelfth Night

Traditionally, Christmas decorations have to be taken down on the twelfth night of Christmas. It was believed that leaving the Christmas decorations up could prove disastrous. The belief goes that the greenery, with which people decorate their homes, housed tree-spirits like holy and ivy. The purpose of bringing greenery in the house was protecting them from the harshness of midwinter.
Once the period from Christmas to January 5 was over, returning the greenery to the open area outside the house was necessary to ensure that the tree-spirits were released.

•    If one failed to do it, it signified that vegetation wouldn’t be able to resume growth. Thus, if the spring wouldn’t return, it could lead to an agricultural calamity.
•    Also, if one did not keep the greenery back outside, people believed that the unreleased tree-spirits could cause mischief inside the house.
Even though the decorations are now artificial (made of paper or foil), and the tree-spirits forgotten, the superstition continues to exist.

Twelfth Night Traditions

The Twelfth Night, especially in the UK, was traditionally celebrated with partying and playing jokes on friends and neighbors. Plays are also performed and the first performance of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night,’ was a part of the 1601 Twelfth Night celebrations.

The cake for the night is a rich fruitcake. Certain things were hidden in it and whatever one got, determined the character bestowed on him. If you got a:
•    Bean: you were the King of the Bean and could command people to do what you wanted them to.
•    Clove: you became a villain
•    Twig: you would be a fool
•    Rag: you would be a tarty girl