12th Night - end of misrule

So the Daft Days are over for another year. All our reuseable decorations are stowed safely in the loft and the greenery that we brought in a few weeks ago has been burnt with due ceremony on tonight's fire. If holly remains in the house after Twelfth Night then it turns into hobgloblins who will taunt you for the coming year. (I read this somewhere when I was young and it has stayed with me ever since.)

This burning of the green is our own family custom,  but fire rituals at this time of year are an age old tradition. Next week there will be a fire ceremony - The Burning of the Clavie in Burghhead, Moray next week, on the eve of the Old New Year.  At the end of the month, Shetland celebrates Up Helly Aa, where a Viking longship is burnt after much processing and celebrating.around Lerwick. For us, now though, it means the end of that twelve day pause between breaths and we can begin anew.