pickaninny Christmas en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˈpɪkənɪni ˌkrɪsməs/
- pĭ’kənĭnē krĭs’məs
Etymology
piccaninny (“black child”) + Christmas. First attested in 1834.
Meanings
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(Caribbean, no-plural, obsolete, offensive) Easter (Christian feast).
Two or three days were given at Christmas and also at Easter, which the slaves called pickaninny Christmas.
2004 [1873], Rev. William James Gardner, “A History of Jamaica”, in West Indian Studies, number 17, London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, →ISBN, page 99:
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(Caribbean, broadly, no-plural, obsolete, offensive) Easter (Christian feast). ▸ Carnival (the period before lent).
In St. Vincent, as late as the 1960s, Carnival was considered the children's Christmas—"pickaninny Christmas" […]
1999, Wallace W. Zane, Journeys to the Spiritual Lands, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Vincentian Context, page 144:
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(Jamaica, derogatory, no-plural, obsolete, offensive) Synonym of junkanoo.
Yet African musical traditions survived, most notably in the annual Jonkonnu masquerade parade, contemptuously dubbed "Pickaninny Christmas" by the whites.
2003, Rough Guides, The Rough Guide to Jamaica, APA Publications, published 2015, →ISBN:
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(no-plural, offensive) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see pickaninny, Christmas.
Ere Christmas of 1935 had arrived, the Rotary Club's Pickaninny Christmas Tree Party idea had so intrigued the community it was proposed that under-privileged Negro children from all sections of the county be invited to the second party.
1937 December 14, L. Mell Glenn, “Our 'Pickaninny' Christmas Party”, in The Rotarian, volume 51, number 6, Rotary International, page 43:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| piccaninny Christmas | alternative | lexicographic |