Annotation:Old Christmas Morning (1)
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OLD CHRISTMAS MORNING. Old-Time, Breakdown. USA, West Virginia. A Major. AEae tuning (fiddle). ABB'. Old Christmas refers to the celebration of Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, on January 6, and was the date some old-time Appalachian communities celebrated Christmas (surviving into the latter half of the 20th century in isolated parts of eastern Kentucky) by lighting bonfires at night with much gun-play and fireworks. The custom was imported from North Britain, where the revelry of "Old Christmas" reached its climax in a rough and sometimes violent practice called "stanging," in which a person was hoisted on a long pole and made to dangle in the air until he bought himself free (Fischer, Albions Seed, p. 745). In the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore one old-timer is quoted:
In some parts of this county it is the custom to observe what is known as Old Christmas. Opinion varies as to the date; some believe it is the fifth and some the sixth of January. This day is believed by the people who keep it to be the real Christmas, the birthday of Christ. They say the Christmas we regularly keep is the "man-made" Christmas ... (Brown, I, 2416).
The tune is related to "Brushy Fork of John's Creek (1) (The)," in the repertoire of Pocahontas County, W.Va. fiddler Burl Hammnons.
Source for notated version: French Carpenter (Clay County, West Virginia) [Krassen].
Printed sources: Krassen (Masters of Old Time Fiddling), 1983; pp. 62-63.
Recorded sources: Rounder 0047, Wilson Douglas- "The Right Hand Fork of Rush's Creek" (1975. Learned from French Carpenter). Rounder 0192, John McCutcheon- "Winter Solstice" (1984). Rounder Heritage Series 1166-11592-2, Wilson Douglas (et al) - "The Art of Traditional Fiddle" (2001). Bruce Green - "Five Miles of Ellum Wood."