family fun

The Twelve Magical Portals to Narwharlia

TWELVE is a very special number in both the human world and in the magical Faerie world of Narwharlia. A group of TWELVE things is called a duodecad and if you think about it, TWELVE is the largest number that has just one syllable - after that there are two parts to the name - thir-teen, twenty-one and so on.

In our human world, groups of TWELVE appear in many areas of our life, from our bodies, our time, money and measurement to our mythology and our belief systems.

• In our human body there are TWELVE cranial nerves, which account for important things like our senses of smell, sight, touch and taste and we normally have TWELVE pairs of ribs.
• In our time, weights and measures, there are TWELVE months in a year, TWELVE hours on a clock face, the Chinese use a TWELVE year cycle for time called Earthly Branches, Force TWELVE is the maximum wind speed of a hurricane, there are TWELVE ounces in a troy pound used to weigh gold and precious metals, in the old British money, there were TWELVE pence in a shilling and in our imperial measurements there were TWELVE inches in a foot.
• In our mythology, there were TWELVE Olympians that were the principal gods, Hercules had TWELVE labours and the Norse god Odin had TWELVE sons. There were TWELVE knights at King Arthur's round table, he subdued TWELVE rebel princes and won TWELVE great battles.
• In our belief systems and religions TWELVE features strongly too. In the Bible, Jacob had TWELVE sons who were the start of the TWELVE Tribes of Israel and in the New Testament, Jesus had TWELVE apostles. Eastern Orthodoxy has TWELVE Great Feasts, Islam recognises TWELVE Imams, successors of the prophet Muhammad, Hinduism has TWELVE names for the sun god Surya and there are TWELVE petals in Anahata, the Heart Chakra.
• TWELVE occurs in random areas of our lives too - the Western and Chinese zodiac have TWELVE signs, there are TWELVE face cards in a deck, TWELVE people have walked on the Moon, there are TWELVE stars on the flag of Europe, there are TWELVE basic hues in a colour wheel, and we recognise the TWELVE days of Christmas for our Yuletide celebrations!

Phew, TWELVE is certainly an important human number!

In the Faerie world of Narwharlia, TWELVE is also very important. There are 'TWELVE Councillors of Wisdom, Truth and Honesty', 'TWELVE Guardians of The Loving Heart', 'TWELVE Ministers of Fun, Happiness and Sharing' and 'TWELVE Directors of Peace and Harmony'.

Most importantly, there are the 'TWELVE Magical Portals of Entry', which are the doors between Narwharlia and the Human World. Each of these doors has a Guardian Faerie or Elf, but on your approach, they may turn into insects, flowers, or everyday objects such as a milk bottle to disguise themselves. Guardians who are members of the same family, usually use the same disguise. Can you spot the brothers and sisters, uncles and cousins who use the butterfly or the ladybird as their family disguise? The doors appear in different places at different times - they are very magical and can do that.

At each event your challenge is to find the TWELVE doors. I wonder what the guardian will have changed into as a disguise!