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Christmas Decorations: Would you keep your decorations up until Candlemas in February?

house covered in decorationsImage source, Getty Images

Does your home still have some of your Christmas decorations up?

Tradition says they have to come down in the first week of January in time for Twelfth Night - but what if you could keep them for longer?

The charity English Heritage suggests keeping your decorations up until February. It says that our medieval ancestors would leave them in place until the feast of Candlemas.

Let us know what you think in our vote and tell us in the comments below if any of your decorations are still up!

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What is Candlemas and when is it?

Falling exactly 40 days after Christmas, on 2 February, Candlemas was observed as the official end of Christmas in medieval England, according to English Heritage.

It explains that the date itself is an important feast day when traditionally candles to be used in churches in the coming year would be blessed.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

The choir at Ripon Cathedral prepare for Candlemas

There were also candlelit processions in honour of the feast.

"The tradition that it is bad luck to keep decorations up after Twelfth Night and the Epiphany is a modern invention," said Dr Michael Carter, English Heritage's Senior Properties Historian.

"Although it may derive from the medieval notion that decorations left up after Candlemas eve would become possessed by goblins!"