In 567, the Council of Tours proclaimed the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany as a sacred and festive season.  The celebration of Christmas Day, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and The Epiphany have been an important part of Western Catholic culture and an opportunity for the sanctification of the faithful for more than 1400 years.  Many traditions arose in various cultures, and the people of those cultures brought these traditions with them upon moving to the United States.

• In Ireland, it is traditional to place the statues of the Three Kings in the creche on The Epiphany.  Some families move the Magi from one station to another in their homes on each of the Twelve Days.
• In Spain, the Cabalgata de Reyes ("Parade of Kings") is observed, with "kings" going through town, handing out sweets.
• In England, Twelfth Night was celebrated with parties and the singing of Christmas Carols.  Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, or What You Will was written to be performed as a Twelfth Night entertainment.

Transferring observance of the solemnity to Sunday was done with the intention of enhancing the celebration of the Holy Day, but it has had the opposite effect, making it "just another Sunday."  Without a high-ranking Solemnity to mark the end of the Twelve days of Christmas, Catholics are tempted to follow our secular culture which observes Christmas before -- and ending on -- December 25th.  Young Catholics, looking to observe the traditions of the Church as part of living their Catholic culture are drawn to celebrations of Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form on January 6th in order to keep the Feast of The Epiphany on its proper day.

In England and Wales, the CBCEW has restored the celebration to the 6th, citing on their website the following reasons:

• Everyone knows that the twelfth day of Christmas is 6 January, the Epiphany, when the Wise Men came to worship and offer gifts to the new born King, Jesus Christ.
• In many cultures – including Italian, French and Spanish – this day is celebrated both as a delightful feast and by giving Christmas gifts.
• Like society itself, congregations in England and Wales have been enriched with multi-cultural and multi-racial migrant groups in recent years and it is reflective of our universality that Catholics celebrate the same feasts around the world. It also resonates with popular culture and our heritage in England and Wales to celebrate the Epiphany with other Christians and those who mark “Twelfth Night”.

Those of us signing this petition respectfully request that our Bishops prayerfully consider the merits of celebrating this important Solemnity on its historic date, January 6th, together with Catholics around the world and with other Christians in the United States.