So Christmas is finally over… and today at some point I will take my Christmas Tree down and put everything away until later this year. Some of you will be thinking, ‘but Catherine you are too late – everything should have been put away by January 6th.’ Well, for many years this is just what I have done, but more recently I have begun to question this practice.
The festival of Christmas begins on December 24th and lasts for 6 weeks – finishing on Candlemas Day (tomorrow) February 2nd. Having searched through the internet there seems very little information as to why twelfth night (5th January) is now customary. In fact all I could find was that it was tradition and if you did not remove them by that day then you would have a year of bad luck.
Well my answer to all this is:-
1. I don’t believe in bad luck (or good luck), but in a loving God revealed to us in Jesus Christ
2. January is dark, cold and miserable – surely having a Christmas tree for the whole month can only improve things.
3. The most reasonable answer – the Christian festival of Christmas / Epiphany is 6 weeks long.
4. Artificial trees don’t drop their needles so there is no mess or bare tree to look at.
So, if you have put away your Christmas tree already, you might want to consider a) putting it up later b) leaving it up for the whole of January.
This is well said and a very good point.
I am interested in the Candlemas ending of Christmas celebrations. I (may have erroneously) understood that the Victorians only celebrated Christmas for 1 week only and were even graced with a post on Christmas Day!
I think you could say Christmas finishes on 6th January and then it is Epiphany. But hey, why worry about detail?
That is something very new to me and sounds a good idea. I will try that later this year for 6 weeks instead of 12 days!!!
Ouch Catherine!! can’t get my REAL Xmas tree back cos had to chopped those pieces of wood to give away!!