{"id":1319,"date":"2024-01-02T10:49:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T10:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/?p=1319"},"modified":"2025-01-08T15:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T15:49:10","slug":"january-2nd-the-9th-day-of-christmas-or-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/january-2nd-the-9th-day-of-christmas-or-is-it\/","title":{"rendered":"The 9th Day of Christmas or is it the 8th? – January 2nd"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
By Grover Cleveland – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=37539711<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But is it? Wikipedia says it is the 9th Day of Christmas, as the first is Christmas Day. But the Perpetual Almanac of Folklore by Charles Kightly counts from Boxing Day. So for him, it is the 8th Day, and I have seen this in other older sources. For example: Gervase Markham\u2019s \u2018The English Husbandman of 1635 says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2018What weather shall be on the sixth and twentieth day of December, the like weather will be all the month of January.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is the idea that the weather on each day of Christmas is linked to the weather in the corresponding month. So the weather for the first month of the year, will be determined by the weather on the first day of Christmas. Note that for Markham the first day is 26th not the 25th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if it is the 9th Day of Christmas we can therefore expect the weather in September 2024 to be unusually warm and wet. Otherwise, a warm and wet August!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on which days are the 12 days of Christmas, have a look at my 12th Night post<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Twelfth Night? Time to take down your Christmas decorations, January 5th<\/a><\/blockquote>