I was born in Maryland and spent my first thirty years living there, first in the Appalachian Mountains, then on the Eastern Shore, and later in suburban Washington. After a year in South Carolina, I moved to Georgia in 1977. I soon met another park ranger who worked in Florida. She was a wonderful woman who became my best friend. then my wife, and soon the mother of our three children. I spent over eleven years working in the historic city of Savannah, Georgia, and on the moss-draped sea islands nearby before moving to Atlanta.. In 2007, I retired from the National Park Service and a career dedicated to preserving and interpreting resources and themes in the cultural and natural history of the United States. It was a most rewarding experience. Today, I enjoy living in the rolling hills and woods of the Appalachian Piedmont east of Atlanta.
Twelfth-night (The King Drinks), David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690)
This is the twelfth and final day of Christmas 2011. In the Western tradition, it is time for general merriment, song, dance, and feasting, and plays that turn the world upside down. At Twelfth Night celebrations, it is time for the Lord of Misrule to turn those "above the salt" into peasants, and peasants into kings, to enjoy the mummer's plays, to let the feasting and wassailing carry on to midnight. As the clock strikes that hour the party ends, and Epiphany, the commemoration of the three kings's visit to the manger begins.
This year Trinity Wall Street, an Episcopal church in lower Manhattan, has sponsored a Twelfth Night concert series. Here are two selections by Claudio Monteverdi from that series:
And if readers want to see Twelfth Night partiers in action, here is some old-fashioned wassailing and good fun from Maplehurst, West Sussex, UK:
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