John R Smith

By chamberlainjohn

Twelfth night

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour!
Twelfth Night, 1. 1


Shakespeare's play was written for the close of the Christmas Season.

There are lots of different ways of counting - but however you do count it is definitely all over today. Epiphany. The Feast of the Kings. The decorations gone. Although..... certainly in earlier times the date to remove the green Christmas decorations was 2nd February or Candlemas.

"Down with the rosemary, and so
Down with the bays and mistletoe;
Down with the holly, ivy, all,
Wherewith ye dress'd the Christmas Hall"

? Robert Herrick (1591?1674), "Ceremony upon Candlemas Eve"


So there's an excuse if you want to procrastinate with the clean up.


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