Peterborough church still has Christmas Tree up at end of January - here is why
January is nearly over (we promise!) and for many of us the wonderful Christmas season seems a distant memory.
Most of us will have packed away the tinsel, baubles and tree into the loft weeks ago – normally by the time January 6 has come around.
But if you have been into Peterborough city centre recently, you may have spotted something surprising in one of our most iconic buildings.
St John’s Church, in Cathedral Square, still has all its Christmas decorations up – including a huge, fully lit tree.
The tree may be looking worse for wear, with a few brown branches visible – but the colourful decorations add some light to the dreary January weather we have been having.
Feeling a little confused by festive sight, The Peterborough Telegraph spoke to The Rev’d Michelle Dalliston, vicar at the church, to find out exactly why the church was still celebrating Christmas.
Revd Dalliston explained that the Church’s Christmas season is still ongoing – for a few more days at least.
She said: “So most people think that Christmas finishes maybe on Boxing Day if you are lucky, or stretch it out to Twelfth Night, Epiphany, but actually in the Church calendar, Christmas goes all the way up to February 2, which is the feast day that finishes off the Christmas season.
"On February 2, we remember how when Jesus was six weeks old as a baby, he gets taken to the temple in Jerusalem to be blessed by God, and he is recognised there by two very elderly people, a Prophet called Simeon, and an old woman called Anna, and they see in this tiny baby, brought in by his mum Mary and his Earthly dad Joseph, they recognise that he is the Messiah, the one that has been promised throughout all the ages.
"So that is the whole season of Christmas, and so for that six weeks we are celebrating here in church, our decorations stay up and all of our prayers and our services are thinking about the light of God’s love revealed in the person, in the baby that is Jesus Christ.”