Jackrabbit XPath query throws exception after ugrade to JR 2.4.2

We are currently working on upgrading Jackrabbit from 1.6.5 to 2.4.2/2.4.3 on our system. we are facing problems on some XPath queries that used to work on the 1.6.5 perfectly, and now it throws javax.jcr.query.InvalidQueryException exception on 2.4.2 - do Jackrabbit changed the way how it parse the XPath queries?

the query is:

//programs//*[child::*/@sunday]

on version 1.6.5 it was working

and on 2.4.2 returns:

null for statement: for $v in //programs//*[child::*/@sunday] return $v