(no subject)

[wellinghall]

[Poll #1117024]

Comments

[emperor]

[x] Other - we took them down on the 6th of January (Epiphany) this year.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Yes - the idea is that they should be up for the 12 days of christmas, so they go up on the 24th and come down on the 6th.

If you are interested in this question you may want to see LNR's poll (http://lnr.livejournal.com/556622.html)

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I don't put up decorations in my flat, but I do help decorate and take down decorations in my parents' house, so I've answered for that.

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

I said I never put them up in the first place - having said that, there's a blue sparkly snowflake decoration dangling from my desk light that I have no intention of taking down!

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

But I forgot to yesterday.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is the option I wanted too.

[sally_maria]

But you haven't taken the Christmas layout down yet. ;-)

[dreiviertel.livejournal.com]

You haven't included "March" or "when the Christmas tree sheds all its needles" among your options, so I can't answer. ;-)

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

As we're often away for most of the Yuletide period, we take ours down after 12th Night on account of not having had the opportunity to enjoy them.

[knitting-hobbit.livejournal.com]

...although this year we did take them down on Twelfth Night. :)

[lalwendeboggart.livejournal.com]

Twelfth night this year, because I was busy, but they usually come down before then because I get grumpy once New Year comes round and I get into a fit of pique and they just have to go...

[na-lon.livejournal.com]

Given that Epiphany is also Orthodox Christmas - I once celebrated that in Moscow, I figure that the decorations need to stay up for a bit after Epiphany. Besides they are beautiful and I enjoy them reminding me of Christmas when I have to go back to work and the nights are still so long.

[tree_and_leaf]

Uh... that is twelfth night, isn't it?

[tree_and_leaf]

Actually, I took the decorations in my flat (which consisted of cards and a Herrenhutter star) down when I went home to my parents, because I wanted to put them up there.

We took the decorations down before Twelfth Night this year, because we were planning to visit my gran (though in the end we couldn't, because of the snow), because my mother is of the opinion that if you don't take them down on the 6th, they should stay up til Candlemas, and sticks to this at least with the odd bits of greens that get forgotten.

[estiel.livejournal.com]

Christmas begins on Christmas and ends on Epiphany.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Not exactly.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

...to be more useful, see the wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night_%28holiday%29); and lnr's poll as mentioned by atreic above is interesting for the debate over this issue.

My personal stance is that 'Twelfth Night' is indeed the 5th Jan, but that decorations should stay up for the entire 12 days of Christmas (remember Christmas Day itself is the first day of Christmas) and thus come down on Epiphany (6th Jan). The visit of the Wise Men to the baby Jesus feels to me an integral part of the Christmas story (it features in crib scenes, carols, and part of the traditional Christmas readings, so I think of it as the end of the Christmas season, though technically in the church calendar it is the beginning of a new season (i.e the Epiphany season.) Hope that helps.

[segh.livejournal.com]

Epiphany isn't Orthodox Christmas, which is 25th December same as it is for you. The Russian Orthodox and some others celebrate Christmas on what we call 7th January because they still keep the Old Calendar, which is now 13 days behind the Western one - they won't acccept the New Calendar because it was introduced by a Pope and imposed on Russia by the Communists - but they still consider Christmas Day to be the 25th December.

[na-lon.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information - I didn't realise that was how it worked. I just had a vague memory of celebrating Christmas on the 7th of January (and got that confused with the 6th of January and Epiphany - sorry about that!) when I was in Moscow many years ago.