Twelfth Night

6^th January

I digressed; I meant to write about Twelfth Night yesterday but I felt too sad to write about fun after I wrote about Da.  

50th Regiment - "The Queen's Own" on parade in Victoria Barracks Sydney 1869. 
Photo held by the State Library of NSW

We’ve had such fun these past years when The Queen’s Own was here.  Usually on the 5^th of January a large fruitcake is cooked and shared out amongst all the privates, and the one who finds the musket-ball cooked into the cake, becomes the King of Misrule.  Dad tells me that usually, in just a family situation, there is a bean and a pea in the cake, the bean for the King of  Twelfth Night and the pea for the Queen, and that the youngest member of the family cuts the cake. But we live on a military post, so the tradition is different. 

We only have a King of Misrule and he gets to sit at the head of the table on the 6^th of January and the CO of the Regiment has to personally serve him his dinner, whilst the other officers place the platters of food around the tables.  They then wish us all a good night and return to the Officer’s Mess for their own party.   Everyone dresses in their best and we all wear masks and the families are allowed to eat with the men, even the Sergeant’s families.

After dinner, the women clear the tables and whilst they are gone, the men change chairs, so that when the women return, they have to find their husbands and sit on their lap, except that because all the men are dressed in their best uniforms and wearing masks, they all look the same and often the women end up sitting on the wrong lap; everyone watches to see how long it will be before the woman knows she’s on the wrong person’s lap.  The last woman to find her husband’s lap then has to pay a forfeit and sing the “Twelve Days of Christmas”.  If she makes a mistake, she then has to give the King of Misrule a kiss.

Then all we children are given a mince tart and the older children have to put the younger children to bed and watch after them whilst our parents finish at the adult’s party.  So once the babies and toddlers are in bed, the older children usually gather on the balcony outside the rooms.  The elder boys draw straws to select a King of Misrule and then all the girls take turns to sing the Twelve Days of Christmas; if we make a mistake we have to give the King a kiss.

Re-enactment of Twelfth Night celebrations in Colonial Willamsburg

I’ve noticed that some of the elder girls deliberately forget lines and make mistakes so they can kiss the King.  I know this, because Annie knows that carol by heart; but last year she pretended to forget words and mixed up the verses, so that she could kiss Robin Bull, who was the children’s King of Misrule.  Annie said he was very handsome with his dark curly hair and strong forehead, like the hero in a Jane Austen novel.  I have trouble understanding Annie these days, she no longer wants to play games but spends her time primping and preening in front of our mirror and sighing over some character called Mr Darcy.  Mamma tells her to be careful or she’ll wear out the mirror.