This has liturgical significance since calculation of the date of Easter assumes that spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere occurs on 21 March.
In particular, the British Empire (including the American colonies) did so from 1752 with the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, by which time the divergence had grown to eleven days.
In February 1800, the Julian calendar had another leap year but the Gregorian did not, moving Old Christmas to 6 January (NS), which coincided with the Feast of the Epiphany.
[11] The name Little Christmas is also found in other languages including Slovene (mali Božič), Galician (Nadalinho), and Ukrainian.
[15] In Eastern Orthodox countries including Russia, 'old Christmas' and 'old New Year' are celebrated on the 6th and 14th of January in addition to the modern dates.
[20] While the tradition had been dying off in some parts of the country, the hospitality industry now specifically advertises events aimed at those celebrating Nollaig na mBan.
[3] Celebration of Christmas Day on 6 January is reflected in the words of Cherry-Tree Carol, an English folk-song that migrated to Appalachia in the Eastern United States.
In his paper The Observance of Old Christmas in Southern Appalachia, C R Young writes 'sometime before the twentieth century, singers who may have been Appalachian residents turned the question which Mary asks of Jesus in regard to "what this world will be" into a query which Joseph puts to the unborn baby.
Young reports that "Bill 'Kitchen' Isom, an advocate of Old Christmas whose rendering of this carol Jean Thomas recorded in Carter County, Kentucky, gave the 'wind up of it' in these words: 'Twas on the sixth day of January Angels did sing; And the shepherds drew nigh Their gifts for to bring.
The holiday was also recognized by certain Ozark communities, "In some sections of Arkansas there are people who bury the entrails of a black hen under the hearth on "Old Christmas."