In Appalachia, at one time, Epiphany was celebrated as "Old Christmas". Richard Chase (the folklorist not the serial killer) in the mid twentieth-century tromped around the hills of the southeast collecting the old stories, poems, and songs passed down from Elizabethan times through these mountain people.Chase was visiting Tom Hunt's hand-hewn log house and soon a passel of relatives and friends of old Tom arrived and the singing and storytelling began. Here's a bit from Chase's Grandfather Tales:
Since on the Christian calendar Advent ends at midnight on Christmas Eve and the official Christmas season begins then, it has been our family tradition for a number of years to keep our modern Christmas decorations up through Epiphany (the Twelve Days of Christmas or Three Kings Day or Old Christmas). Like most Americans we spend way too much attention on the commercial and community pre-Christmas activities and like to try to use the Twelve Days of Christmas for a calmer less frantic celebration.
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