Revellers dance alongside the Thames to celebrate Twelfth Night
The Holly Man, a figure covered from head to toe in evergreen foliage, is a pagan symbol of seasonal rebirth.
Crowds held hands and danced to celebrate Twelfth Night – marking the end of the festive season and start of the Epiphany.
The Holly Man, a pagan symbol of seasonal rebirth who is covered head to toe in evergreen foliage, greeted revellers outside Shakespeare’s Globe on London’s South Bank.
The audience, some of whom were decked in Holly, were then treated to the “freestyle” St George Folk Combat Play by the Bankside Mummers, a tradition which dates back to the Crusades.
Free pieces of “Twelfth cake” were handed around and two lucky individuals with cakes containing a bean and a pea, were crowned the King Bean and Queen Pea.
The crowd danced from the Globe to the historic George Inn in Southwark and rounded off the afternoon with mulled wine, Morris dancing and decorating of the Kissing Tree, an evergreen bough decked with ribbons representing wishes.
Twelfth Night also marks the day on which Christmas decorations are to be taken down.
The official date, however, has been subject to some confusion, with some regarding it as January 5, 12 days from December 25, and others celebrating it on January 6, 12 days from Boxing day.