Why Early Appalachian Settlers Originally Celebrated Christmas in January

[jmyrlefuller]

http://appalachianmagazine.com/2016/12/25/why-early-appalachian-settlers-originally-celebrated-christmas-in-january/

Ask any of the millions of children scattered throughout the Appalachian Mountains what day of the year Christmas is on and you will undoubtedly hear, “December 25th”.  Everyone from Northern Alabama to the Katahdin Summit in Maine knows that it is on this date that Santa Claus comes to town.

Interestingly, if you had been roaming the Appalachian hillsides only a few centuries ago, the answer to this same question would have produced a far different date — January 7th.

To understand why the early inhabitants of Appalachia celebrated Christmas two weeks after December 25th, we must first jump back in time nearly a half-century before the birth of Christ and visit the Roman Empire.

(excerpt)

[jmyrlefuller]

(Note of contention here: the premise here is slightly flawed. Everyone agrees that December 25 is Christmas, but in the case of the people in question, December 25 would have fallen on a day roughly two weeks later than the day we consider it to be.)

[Cripplecreek]

I'm not sure the when matters nearly as much as the why.

As a kid we all know Christmas to be the ultimate Christian holiday but as an adult I grew to recognize the Easter season as the pinnacle of Christian holidays.

[Smokin Joe]

And here I thought it was so they could take advantage of the Boxing Day sales....