Little Christmas

[almost-irish]

Is anyone familiar with the idea of celebrating 'Little Christmas' on 6th January? Friends of mine plan to do this with another turkey dinner and opening of more presents, and maintain that this is an established Irish custom. As a Brit now living in Ireland, this is the first I have heard of this! How common is this, and does it also happen in the U.K.?
Confused, Co. Kildare

[dee2912]

hi being born and bred irish i have never heard of this im 25 asked my dad who is almost 60 and he laughted hows the weather in kildare been working there for 6months before xmas

[weeal]

Do you maybe mean the Epiphany? which is 6th January?

[rojash]

From Wkipedia

"Little Christmas, or Nollaig Bheag in Irish, is one of the traditional names in Ireland for January 6, more commonly known in the rest of the world as the Epiphany. It is so called because it was the day on which Christmas Day was celebrated under the Roman calendar, before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar. It is the traditional end of the Christmas season and the last day of the Christmas holidays for both primary and secondary schools in Ireland."

Notice it doesn't say anything about turkey and prezzies, though...

[spudqueen]

This is the date on which the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas as they use the old calendar. Not that that's anything to do with Ireland of course!

[nonomaybe]

Trettondag Jul, the 6th of January is a public holiday in Sweden and signals the end of Christmas - when the tree gets cast out and the decorations taken down.
External decorations, usually in the form of lights are generally left in position to brighten up otherwise long dark nights.