Old Christmas superstition

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

The following excerpt is from ‘The Hammons Family: A Study of a West Virginia Family’s Traditions,’ based on oral history field recordings from the early 1970s. After a short intro explaining the background of the term Old Christmas, we listen in on Dwight Diller interviewing Burl and Maggie Hammons:

Traditions and the close observation of natural phenomena were used to forecast weather and the coming season’s climate and crops. The following conversation mentions a few of these traditions, one of which refers to “Old Christmas.”

England’s adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752 meant an 11-day shift in dates from year. Some people continued to celebrate the old day by moving the holiday to January 5, although confusion of this date with Epiphany may account for the Hammonses’ tradition that Old Christmas falls 12 days after December 25.

Burl: That’s a pretty good sign. It’s a dog star they call it—and it goes away, it goes. It, whenever that, it comes in along about the start of July, most of the time, and it lasts maybe 40 days?

Maggie: Yes.

Burl: Forty days, that dog star lasts now. . . .

Maggie: Yes, it’s 40 days, yes, 40 days is the dog days. Yes sir.

Burl: And there’s one day they used to claim if it rained on that day the chestnuts, when the chestnuts were in bloom or something, that there would be no chestnuts. And by gosh now you could watch it up and it would, it was thataway, now.

Maggie: Well now what day was it?

Burl: I don’t know, I can’t remember nothing what—what it was. It was something or another about the chestnuts.

Maggie: Well, they claim if the house drips on Old Christmas—not the first Christmas, Old Christmas, that they’ll be a good fruit year, plenty of fruit and mast and everything.

Dwight Diller: If—if what now?

Maggie: The house drips. If she’s warm enough for your house to drip.

Dwight: Oh.

Maggie: Yes sir, on Old Christmas.

Dwight: What’s that? What day’s that now?

Maggie: Well now, it’s just 12 days from New Christmas, that’s the first Christmas, you know, that they all keep. And after they come in 12 days is what they call Old Christmas.

source: ‘The Hammons Family: A Study of A West Virginia Family’s Traditions,’ Edited by Carl Fleischhauer and Alan Jabbour; Based on fieldwork by Dwight Diller, Alan Jabbour and Carl Fleischhauer; 1973 Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. Online at: https://www.loc.gov/folklife/LP/AFSL65andL66_Hammons.pdf

More articles on Christmas traditions of the region:

The Legend of Ruling Days(Opens in a new browser tab)

Take it outside Christmas morning and jump on it with both feet(Opens in a new browser tab)

Breakin’ up Christmas(Opens in a new browser tab)

The Beautiful Holiday Trees of Adaland Mansion(Opens in a new browser tab)

Extended Family(Opens in a new browser tab)