In between New Year and the Epiphany

I know that some of you in the UK have already taken down your Christmas decorations at home and are probably in 'January Sales' mode but here in Spain the Christmas period continues until the 6th of January.  This is the date of the Epiphany, or the twelfth day after Christmas day.  This Christian feast day celebrates God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ and The Three Wise Men, or the Three Kings (whichever you prefer), visit him.

This is all a part of the Christian festivities, but in the UK it seems that everything Christmassy has to be taken down and forgotten until next year.  In my opinion, it's a real shame how Christmas in the UK is now a one day huge commercial event and the Christmas traditions are almost totally lost.  I was quite angry the other day when I was watching a popular chat show on BBC 1 and no one knew what Boxing Day traditionally was.

It's quite embarrassing for me when I see Spanish people asking British people about what certain festivities are for and they don't know - myself included in some things.  It's unfortunate that our culture is to just take advantage of the day off work for various festivities and not think about what it's really for.  And I'm sure there's lots of people out there who don't even know what the word 'holiday' means and where it comes from!

The educated Spanish still have some kind of religious education at school and at home, and uphold traditions practised by the older generations, but I do see an influence of the 'commercial Christmas' creeping in.  

I was watching A Great British Christmas with Sarah Beeny on 4oD the other evening and it was interesting to see how some of our traditions came about and have evolved over time.  Some things have been around from pagan traditions, like hanging mistletoe - which is not allowed in Christian churches unless it is blessed apparently.

That's one of the reasons why I like the culture here, because it's still traditional and natural.  Spain, especially the many villages, in some ways is about 15 years behind the UK.  But I like it like that.

I took down my Christmas tree last night because I am spending Reyes (they simply refer the celebration of the visit of the Three Kings as 'Kings') in a village in Granada and when I return I don't really want to see all my decorations still up... The Christmas period can go on for longer than desired at times!