Happy days

We have spent a great fortnight – at home – enjoying the company of family and friends with hardly any days or nights on our own. It certainly has been a happy season to cherish, especially as we only have a faint idea how everything might be a year from now.

Epiphany, the feast that is believed to be even older than Christmas, is here marking the end of Yuletide. Depending on the area, Epiphany is being celebrated to commemorate the arrival of the three wise men or the baptism of Jesus but also the miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana. To the man in the street it probably only indicates the absolute deadline when he must stop holidaying.

Tomorrow will be business as usual for everyone from offices to schools but I’m not stripping the decorations yet. Now that we have a full-sized Christmas tree we’ve skipped for years using my daughter’s Maine Coon cats as an excuse (they didn’t mess with it at all!) I will take the most of it. I’m planning to follow the old tradition to close the festive season one week later on the 13th. That used to be the feast of Saint Canute or King Knud, the patron saint of Denmark.

All photos from Rome.