old Christmas - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
old Christmas n An alternative date of Christmas formerly observed, reflecting the date of the holiday as calculated according to the Julian (or Old Style) calendar, which was replaced by the more precise Gregorian (New Style) calendar in Britain and Ireland in 1752, at which time the date was moved ahead by eleven days. In some places the populace continued to observe Christmas according to the older calendar and associated the day with such miraculous events as the kneeling of livestock in the direction of Bethlehem at the stroke of midnight and the sudden blooming of flowers. The day was recognized in Ulster, but whether such signs were known there is unclear, and belief in them and observance of the holiday was brought by early settlers to the North American colonies. In some places in southern Appalachia the belief that the day was the true, sacred Christmas persisted into the twentieth century. The observance has no connection, as its date of occurrence has suggested to some, with Twelfth Night or Epiphany. (For discussion, see Chester Raymond Young, ‘The Observance of Old Christmas in Southern Appalachia’ in An Appalachian Symposium, ed. J. W. Williamson. Boone, N.C.: Appalachian State University, 1977). [dare chiefly Mid Atlantic, South Midland]
Ulst.:
1863 Hume Rabbin’s Ollminick 6 [Mon. Jennewerry 5] Oul’ Chrissimis Day: They say it’s more luckier nor the new one; but most o’ the young ones knows nothin’ about the oul’ times afore the stile wos changed, an’ the people lost their eleven days.
1953 Traynor Donegal Glossary 201 Old Christmas day = January 6th.
U.S.:
1895 Edson and Fairchild Tenn Mts 373 = January 6th. (The day is remembered by those who never heard of Twelfth Night or Epiphany.)
1905 Miles Spirit of Mts 107 But he and Arth do not disagree about certain weather signs their mother had taught them when they were shirt-tail boys’, signs about Groundhog Day, for example, and the Ruling Days, the twelve days from the twenty-fifth of December to Old Christmas, each of which rules the weather of a month of the coming year.
1942 Thomas Blue Ridge 158-59 There are people who may never have heard of the Gregorian or Julian calendar, yet in keeping Old Christmas as they do on January 6th, they cling unwittingly to the Julian calendar of 46 B.C., introduced in this country in the earliest years. To them December 25th is New Christmas, according to the Gregorian calendar adopted in 1752. They celebrate the two occasions in a very different way. The old with prayer and carol-singing, the new with gaiety and feasting.
1970 Adams Appal Revisit 46 One of the most beautiful superstitions was in connection with the celebration of Old Christmas, which occurs on January 6, the date on which Christmas occurred in early England before the calendar change in the 18th century to December 25. The folk believed that on the eve of Old Christmas, the elderberry bushes shot out their blossoms and that at midnight the cattle would kneel down in their stalls to pay homage to the Baby Jesus who had been born in a stable.
1974 Betts and Walser NC Folklore 4 In 1752 England officially adopted the Gregorian calendar. Some people continued to celebrate Christmas according to the old Julian calendar, making their Ule holiday January 5. The tradition of Old Christmas came to North Carolina with its English settlers. And although Old Christmas is no longer widely celebrated, the people of Rodanthe on the Outer Banks still have an observance of the original holiday. One feature of their celebration is the appearance of Old Buck, a fierce bull-like creature (really two men in a costure). Every year he cavorts about, trying to frighten the children.
