Out of Christmas

Today, 13th of january, is my fathers "name day". His name was Knut. It's also twenty days after Christmas, traditionally the day when us swedes remove all Christmas things from our homes. "Knut drives Christmas out".

This tradition has a long history. Knut was the name of a Danish prince who got murdered on the 7th of january 1131. His full name was Knud Lavard and he later became "Saint Knut". Many places in Sweden still have a special feast on that day, "Knutsgille", to celebrate his memory (few remember who he was or why we celebrate but we kept the opportunity to have fun). 

In earlier days Christmas ended on the thirteenth day after christmas, on the 6th of dec, which is still a very important day in Catholic Orthodox countries. Knuts day the 7th of january was the first "normal" day so  Christmas was over and should be cleared out. What about the 13th of january then? Well, towards the end of the sixteenhundreds someone prolonged Christmas with a full week. Nobody knows precisely who or exactly why but because Knut was supposed to finish off Christmas his name day was also moved a week, to the 13th of january. That's why "Tjugondag Knut" or "twenty day Knut" is celbrated as the end of Christmas, anyway here in Sweden. There are several theories why the end of Christmas was moved to a week later, mostly connected with the church. You can Google this yourself, should you be interested.

I've been honouring my fathers name today by cleaning out Christmas from my home. I removed my advent star from the window and changed the red and green table cloth to one in a different color. And hoovered all my floors. And had a shower. I'm now ready for something different. 
Happy name day, father Knut.