JK Decorations

[Ali]

 Annemehr:

>> I think Epiphany's Epiphany, and the end of the Christmas season, 
to everyone who pays attention to that.  It is for Catholics, anyway,
except in my experience most *don't* pay that much attention.  They 
tend to put their decorations up very shortly after Thanksgiving 
(last Thurs. in Nov. in the US), and then clear them all away as 
early as Dec. 26.  Either that, or leave them up nearly to 
Valentine's Day.>>>

I wonder if this is a cultural thing, but most Brits I know will 
have taken their decorations down by January 6th regardless of what 
denomination they might be. I think we tend to put our decorations 
up later than people in the US might (although we are getting 
earlier each year) and will take them down in the days following New 
Year.

I'm not sure how superstituous people are these days, but I can 
certainly recall being told by a number of different people that it 
was bad luck to have decorations up past Epiphany. JKR is just 
following social patterns here. Having said that, I did notice one 
or two Christmas trees up after the 6th this year, but that did seem 
unusual...

Ali