Question: What day did many North Carolinians celebrate Christmas before the state adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752?
Answer: Known as “Old Christmas” or “Little Christmas,” some 18th- and 19th-century North Carolinians celebrated Christmas around Jan. 5 each year after the Gregorian calendar was adopted by the British Empire in 1752. Some American colonies refused to celebrate Christmas on the new date of Dec. 25 and eventually merged Old Christmas into the new Epiphany on Jan. 6, creating a joint observance not seen in the West since the fourth century. In time, Dec. 25 became the focus and Old Christmas turned secular.
