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Twelfth Night

Historical Festival
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Christian feast on January 5–6 marking the end of Christmas with revelry, cake, and role reversals

Detailed Definition
Twelfth Night celebrates the Magi’s arrival and features the Lord of Misrule, wassail, and the King Cake with a hidden bean. In poetry, Shakespeare’s play captures its spirit of inversion and romance. Poets use it to explore themes of temporary freedom, the folly of disguise, and the bittersweet end of festivity—making it a symbol of joy’s impermanence and the return to ordinary time after epiphany.
Example
Example in poetry:
Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” draws on the festival’s inversion and revelry; Poets use Twelfth Night to explore disguise, folly, and Christmas-tide closure; In modern verse, Twelfth Night symbolizes final celebration before ordinary time; The feast appears in January poetry as epiphany and removal of greens; Poets contrast Malvolio’s humiliation with festive joy; Liturgical poets reference Twelfth Night as manifestation of Christ.
Additional Notes
Twelfth Night (January 5/6) marks the end of Christmas and the coming of Epiphany; features revelry, inversion, and cake with a hidden bean; in poetry, it evokes transience of festivity, disguise, and revelation—central to Shakespeare’s play; ideal for carnivalesque, epiphanic, or seasonal verse exploring the end of light and return to ordinary time.
Other Meanings of “Twelfth Night”
Also Known As
Epiphany Eve Old Christmas Night
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