I keep coming across references to the Old Twelfth celebrations, which take place in mid-January. It turns out that the Old Twelfth is the twelfth day of Christmas according to the old Julian calendar.
The Gregorian calendar page from Weisstein's World of Astronomy has details about why we adopted the Gregorian calendar, and when various countries changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian one. An excerpt:
The Julian calendar was switched over to the Gregorian starting in 1582, at which point the 10 day difference between the actual time of year and traditional time of year on which calendrical events occurred became intolerable. The switchover was bitterly opposed by much of the populace, who feared it was attempt by landlords to cheat then out of a week and a half's rent. However, when Pope Gregory XIII decreed that the day after October 4, 1582 would be October 15, 1582, the Catholic countries of France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy complied. Various Catholic German countries (Germany was not yet unified), Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland followed suit within a year or two, and Hungary followed in 1587. Because of the Pope's decree, the reform of the Julian calendar came to be known as the Gregorian calendar. The rest of Europe did not follow suit for more than a century. The Protestant German countries adopted the Gregorian reform in 1700. By this time, the calendar trailed the seasons by twelve days. England finally followed suit in 1752, declaring that Wednesday, September 2, 1752 was immediately followed by Thursday, September 14, 1752 . . . .
In England, some Twelfth Day traditions (like wassailing the apple trees) continue to be celebrated on Old Twelfth (twelfth day after Christmas in the Julian calendar) instead of on the New Twelfth (twelfth day after Christmas in the Gregorian calendar).
Posted on January 18, 2003 10:31 AM. Filed under: Christmas.