According to tradition, it is good luck to eat a mince pie daily for how many days over the festive period?

An old English tradition claims that to ensure good health and happiness in the year ahead, you should eat a mince pie on each day of the Twelve Days of Christmas, between Christmas Eve and 5th January. It is also a tradition to leave a mince pie for Father Christmas by the fireplace with a glass of whisky and a carrot for Rudolph the Reindeer.

Mince pies are small short-crust pastries filled with mincemeat (spiced fruit, currants, sultanas, apples and candied peels). Despite the name, they do not contain meat, but they do derive from a meaty pie enjoyed by King Henry VIII in the 16th century. Known as a 'Christmas pye', the pies were served as the main dish at Christmas and contained both meat and fruit. Due to their association with Christmas, they were also known as 'crib cakes', which alluded to the baby Jesus in his crib. Since meat was expensive, the poorer people of England substituted the meat for more fruit, thus developing what is known today as mincemeat. Allegedly, mincemeat contains three spices, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon, as a symbol of the gifts given to Jesus by the Three Wise Men.

No one knows how the superstition of eating a pie a day evolved, but it is no longer a popular tradition. Instead, mince pies are served throughout the seasons of Advent and Christmas. In other traditions, mincemeat is made on 'Stir-up Sunday', the last Sunday before Advent. It should only be stirred clockwise, or the next 12 months will bring bad luck and poor fortune.