Talk:Little Christmas

School holidays
I don't know of any primary or secondary schools that mark "Little Christmas" as the end of the holiday break. It varies from school district to school district, and most in our area return by January 2. --Wisconsinmom (talk) 22:30, 19 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi Wisconsinmom. I'm assuming you're from Wisconsin, so that might be why schools in your area return on January 2 and not on January 7. The article here states that schools in Ireland mark Little Christmas as the end of the Christmas break. It's a standard regulation from the Department of Education because January 6 is a church holiday, so the 95% or so of Irish schools which are Catholic are closed on this day anyway. I dunno, it probably makes things easier for them to remain closed until January 7 and then go back to normal, or maybe they just use any excuse to take extra time off work!! Hope that clears things up. Dennisc24 (talk) 18:47, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Little Christmas is one of the traditional names in Ireland for January 6, more commonly known in the rest of the world as Epiphany...?
I'm from southern England, (although I was raised Roman Catholic for my mother, and not C of E), but 'Little Christmas' was our word for 'Epiphany'. I never even heard the word 'Epiphany' until I was an older child, and I've never even been to Ireland. God bless the Irish, but this to me is much more something we share than where we differ. (Although it wasn't called 'Women's Christmas'; now that one is news to me. --Christian Gregory (talk) 00:54, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

Same with Scandinavia - in Norway and Sweden, Epiphany is never referred to as Little Christmas, but "Holy Three Kings Day" or "Thirteenth Day of Yule" (Trettendedag Jul / Trettondedagen).

The text also says "Somewhat confusingly Christmas Eve is also referred to as "Little Christmas" in Scandinavia." The confusion is on the part of the Wikipedia author, who misunderstood the references. The day before Christmas is indeed referred to as Lillejuleaften (No) / Lilla Julafton (Se), but the day before Christmas in Scandinavia is December 23rd, as Christmas is celebrated on the 24th, not the 25th.

So the order is:

Dec 23 - Little Christmas Eve

Dec 24 - Christmas Eve (main celebration)

Dec 25 - 1. Day of Christmas

...

Jan 6 - 13. Day ("Holy Three Kings Day")

...

Jan 13 - 20. Day ("20. Day Knut", St. Canute's day)

And yes, in large parts of Scandinavia, the holidays are celebrated for either 13 or 20 days. 68.9.90.216 (talk) 13:28, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Hogmanay
Hogmanay is New Year's Eve," Oidhche Challuin", and by extension the early hours of the New Year but it is not New Year's Day itself. I have removed the reference to it. Ceartas (talk) 14:41, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

Old Christmas?
To me, "Old Christmas" is January 7 - Christmas on the Julian Calendar, still commemorated by a few. A completely different thing than Epiphany. But "Old Christmas Day" redirects here. Is there possibly some confusion between the two in the article? Carlo (talk) 20:06, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

Hen Galan
Although I think the connection is too tenuous to justify an interwiki link, this article reminded me of cy:Hen Galan ("Old New Year's Day"), celebrated in parts of Wales on 13 January (also one of the days called "Little Christmas Day" according to this article). Just mentioning it here for anyone interested in this kind of thing! Ham II (talk) 10:07, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

Lancashire
The reference for its being celebrated in Lancashire is a book from 1882. Isn't this a bit old? It might well have been celebrated in Lanacashire back then, but don't we need a source to say that it still is? Epa101 (talk) 23:48, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

Original research and/or bad mathematics
At the time of the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, the difference between the Old Style and New Style Dates was 11 days. 25/12 + 11 => 5/1, not 6/1. I rather suspect that somebody has just made this up. Anyone know of a good reason not to just delete it? --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 16:36, 30 December 2016 (UTC)

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"Eastern and Western Churches"
The second sentence of the article runs "By the year AD 1500 eastern Churches were celebrating Christmas on 6 January and western churches were celebrating it on 25 December even though both were using the Julian Calendar.[1]" The article referenced in the footnote explains that by the fourth century churches in the eastern Roman Empire (especially Egypt and Asia Minor) celebrated Christmas on 6 January, and that the Armenian Church still does so. Introducing the year 1500 (because of the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582?), makes the phrase "Eastern churches" suggest the Orthodox churches, rather than the Armenian church or the former churches of the eastern Roman Empire.

Perhaps the sentence should read something like "By the fourth century, the churches of the eastern Roman Empire were celebrating Christmas on 6 January and those of the western Roman Empire were celebrating it on 25 December."

Curmudgeonly Pedant (talk) 23:12, 6 January 2018 (UTC)