Corn Islands Old Christmas
Oral history tells us that our grandparents and their descendants used to celebrate two Christmases, one on the 25th of December and the other on the 6th of January, this last one was called Old Christmas and was celebrated massively just as the 25th of the previous month.
The popular day of 25th December was not Christmas Day before the Gregorian Calendar was adopted. This was because the old calendar that people used at the time had a different number of days compared to the Gregorian calendar we use at present.
The 6th of January is the day traditionally known as Old Christmas on the Corn Islands. It’s a relic of the Julian Calendar, developed 2,000 years ago. In the late 1500s, Catholic Pope Gregory XIII changed the calendar to match the solar cycle more closely. To do so, the Julian Calendar had to be reduced from 376 to 365 days, eliminating 11 full days. Some countries resisted the change and kept the old Julian Calendar. For example, it took nearly 200 years for England and Scotland to come around. Both countries adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1752, according to historical records.
About this time, many of these English and Scots were emigrating to the Americas, especially the Caribbean and North America. Some didn’t know about the change or refused to adopt the new Gregorian Calendar and kept the extra 11 days in their calendars. This meant that for them, Christmas fell on the 7th of January rather than the 25th of December, meaning that Christmas Eve would be the 6th, the day islanders celebrate Old Christmas.
Over time, most Christians in the Caribbean and North America started observing the 25th of December as Christmas. However, until fairly recently, Old Christmas was still celebrated in many Caribbean countries and some rural areas of Anglo-North America.
Today, for many Christians, the 6th of January is also called the Day of the Epiphany or Three Kings Day, where they remember, according to some Christian traditions, the arrival of wise men to the place where Christ was born.
Old Christmas is still kept in many former British colonies, known for being the last day of Christmas, which commences on the 25th of December. In the Corn Islands, Old Christmas is traditionally also the last day of the Masquerade celebrations.
Traditionally, islanders would celebrate this day with light cake, ginger beer and other typical food and pastries. A religious service would be held early in the morning, especially by the Anglican Church celebrating the last day of Christmas, while in the afternoon those that enjoy bacchanal would gather for a feast and the end of the Masquerade season.
