Keeping Christmas Decorations up until February - English Heritage
For those of you who have not yet taken down your Christmas decorations, the English Heritage is suggesting that you could actually keep them until February following the Medieval tradition. Candlemas on 2 February falls exactly 40 days after Christmas and is so-called because the candles intended to be used in churches in the coming year would be blessed on that day. Christmas decorations were removed on Candlemas Eve. This 17th century poem by Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674) describes their removal.
Ceremony on Candlemas Eve
Down with the rosemary, and so
Down with the bays and mistletoe;
Down with the holly, ivy, all
Wherewith ye dress'd the Christmas hall;
That so the superstitious find
No one least branch there left behind;
For look, how many leaves there be
Neglected there, maids, trust to me,
So many goblins you shall see
(Source: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about-us/search-news/leave-your-decorations-up/)
Quote from 'The Book of Koli'
"It never stops amazing me how a story can deliver you out of your own self, even in the worst of times."
(from "The Book of Koli: The Rampart Trilogy, Book 1 (Rampart Trilogy 1)" by M. R. Carey)
M.R. Carey is becoming one of my favourite authors. I have also read 'The Girl with all the Gifts', which has recently been made into a motion picture (I've not seen) and 'The Boy on the Bridge'. The book of Koli is a post-apocalyptic novel where the trees and plants are deadly.
“Why would anyone hug a tree?” I stammered out. “You would most likely die!”
Koli, the main character in the book grew up in a highly defended village but is now forced out into the dangerous world beyond.
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