https://infogalactic.com/info/Epiphany_season
I guess there are some modern shakeups with this in the Vatican 2 era, some of us are following the old tradition here:
Until 1955, the feast of the Epiphany in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church had an octave, and was thus celebrated from the vigil Mass on 5 January until 13 January. After Pope Pius XII removed this octave, the liturgy of those days continued to use the same texts as previously, thus giving to the period until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which replaced the Octave Day of the Epiphany, a special character
This defined the season of Christmas as extending from First Vespers of Christmas to 13 January inclusive, and divided this season into Christmastide, ending just before First Vespers of the Epiphany, and Epiphany ... from then until 13 January inclusive (one week).[11]
So Christmastide (the time after Christmas) was either defined as ending on January 5th (Epiphany), January 13th (Octave Day of Epiphany), or February 2nd (Candlemas): https://infogalactic.com/info/Christmastide
By the letter of the law, those (sedevacantists) who follow Pius XII as the last pope would then probably observe the abolished Octave of the Epiphany, but a perhaps more common approach by the spirit of the law has been to reject these changes (like the Easter week changes) as being leaning in a destructive modernist direction.
I'd have gladly left my decorations up if the tree wasn't hemorrhaging needles by Christmas eve this year despite the use of Miracle Gro tree extender. Does this make me a sedevacantist? :)
naw, when the decorations go down seems a bit up in the air traditionally or in the modern world, to me anyway
I have initially wanted to keep them up for a while, like maybe to February 2nd, but I'm thinking maybe for the octave of epiphany to "Shrovetide" maybe some other kind of winter decoration might predominate, I dunno I need to experiment with this.
Then the Valentine's Day decorations go up, at least culturally rather than religiously, here soon
The nativity scene gets filled with the Christ child on Christmas, and then with the Three kings on Epiphany; in a similar way, I think the decorations should change over time
I dunno our culture is kind of backwards, decorating and celebrating up to Christmas and then they want everything down by Epiphany or right after Christmas, instead of celebrating Christmas for a while after Christmas (instead of before) - it's kind of inverted, the time from Thanksgiving to Christmas is maybe the time from Christmas to "Candlemas" which should be all decorated in a "Christmasy" way
This is kind of an experiment of "returning to tradition" I'm trying to figure out - it's not just abotu decorating, but that's an expression of other things that are going on and part of the aesthetic
Do some research on the origins of Valentine's day if you want to make your hair stand on end.
Eros and Psyche and all that?
Not Eros and Psyche, Lupa.
well from what I recall St. Valentine was a priest or bishop who continued helping Christian couples to marry even when the government made it illegal so he was given the death penalty for doing so
not sure if there's some other thing you have in mind, it's an interesting story to think about
Romans brought the fertility celebration known as the Lupercalia into Christianity, in honor of Lupa, the she-wolf who (according to legend) nursed the infant orphans Romulus and Remus. They renamed it St Valentine's, and celbrated with roses. BTW. The Fascist government of Benito Mussolini made use of the she-wolf while in power.
ok interesting yeah I've seen people mention things like these but for myself I've concluded that either pagan practices and Christian ones developed independently or sometimes at the same time (while being distinct), and at other times straight up Chrisitans were trying to take pagan practices and "baptize them" or remove anything non-Christian but still kind of be doing similar things.
Point is that I don't think it's just Christians being tricked in to practicing paganism as some people are concerned with, there are just too many instances of this "baptizing" of pagan practices
for example this is straight up admitted by the pope that Candlemas was a pagan adaptation, that they couldn't get rid of the practice so they just removed anything objectionable and made it into a Christian occasion:
https://infogalactic.com/info/Presentation_of_Jesus_at_the_Temple#History