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Subject:
From:
Jim Huffaker <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 29 Mar 2002 19:34:54 -0500
Content-Type:
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A Google search: "Birth Night" Celebration turned up many hits:
This citation may be relevant to your inquiry:

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE DANCE
... together. My Grandparents & self went up to Alexandria to attend the
celebration
of the Birth night. The room was crowded, there were twenty five or thirty
...
www.colonialmusic.org/Resource/GW&Dance.htm - 29k - Cached - Similar pages
----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2002 6:22 PM
Subject: Re: Birth Night Festivities


> Hello.
>
> I will throw in my $.02 here if you don't mind.
>
> My grandmother continued to refer to Christmas Eve as "Birth Night" until
her
> death in 1960. She was a lifelong Virginian of very old stock (pre-1620),
but
> I doubt that the term was local. I do not remember her talking of "Birth
> Night Balls", but we also never mentioned cotillions and such either.
>
> Could anyone look into the pre-1900 Christmas traditions to see if this
was a
> popular reference to that occasion? It seems strange to us in 2002, but
> Christmas was NOT celebrated the same way before 1900, having been
affected
> many times by the melding of cultures here... and the consequent
amelioration
> of the terminology, etc.
>
> I hope this helps in some small way.
>
> Jon
>
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