Why we must all be leaving our decorations up until eventually February

What a variance a day would make. From a residence fantastically embellished for Christmas on 31 December to a household stripped of all decorations, the Christmas tree taken to recycling. Some people today even acquire down all their decorations on Boxing Day, though other people leave it until eventually as late the 6th January. And nevertheless January is a time when most of us need a bit of color and sparkle as a great deal as – and probably much more than – in December. 

And guess what? In accordance to English Heritage, it is really properly suitable, and even desirable, to leave your tree and decorations up until finally…1st February. No, it can be not undesirable luck – the notion that leaving Christmas decorations earlier the Epiphany on 6th January is a present day strategy. Typically, English households stayed decorated up until eventually Candlemas, which is on 2nd February. 

Candlemas, also regarded as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was an significant day in the Medieval spiritual calendar, and it culminated with a banquet and a candlelit procession on the 2nd February. This was also the day when candles for the year forward would be brought to churches to be blessed, for this reason the title.   

And even though it has a long time since Candlemas was greatly celebrated, it tells us a little something exciting about how people utilised to believe about the wintertime holiday seasons and the darkish winter months that follow Xmas. Now, we imagine about January as a month of harsh self-self-control and radical lifestyle adjustments, believing that setting up the year in an ascetic way will help us accomplish a lot more in the new calendar year. Some of us give up booze, whilst others go on rigorous diets or undertake strenuous exercising regimens – all throughout a month when it is however darkish till 8 in the early morning.