Have you ever seen swans
swimming in a pond and thought I should get that as a gift for my sweetie? Yeah
me either especially when, according to PNC’s Christmas Price Index, it would
cost $6300 to make that happen. As we all know that wonderfully repetitive
song, the 12 Days of Christmas which gets played so often this time of year,
however if one were to purchase all of those gifts for their significant other
it would cost them a whopping $24,263. But seriously who in their right mind
would buy all of these gifts for an individual or in what century would someone
have purchased turtle doves and men jumping around as a Christmas gift. The
question is when and why was this song created?
Many people hear the 12 days of
Christmas and believe they are gifts leading up to Christmas Day, the 12th
day, however the first day, a partridge in a pear tree, starts on Christmas Day
and ends on January 5th. The period after Christmas is a Christian
celebration dating as far back as the Middle Ages known as Christmastide,
Twelvetide, or Yuletide. Whatever the name may be, this period after Christmas
is meant for reflection on the birth of Jesus Christ with traditional feasts
such as the feast of St. Stephen, which is meant to give leftovers to the poor,
along with the feast of John the Evangelist and the feast of the Holy
Innocents. Many of these traditions and celebrations vary throughout different
countries and various religions. Here in the United States the traditions and
celebrations of the Twelve Days of Christmas had largely been forgotten and relegated
to a song.
So the question is what is the origin of the song “The
Twelve Days of Christmas”? The song was published for the first time in England
in 1780 however many historians believe its origins are French and the song
could date back much further than that. Why the song was written and published
at the time is unknown. In 1979, a Canadian teacher wrote an article suggesting
that the song 12 days were coded catechisms for the Catholic Church. His
argument was that the English people were not permitted to practice Catholicism
publically from 1558-1829 so they secretly celebrated their traditions of
Twelve Night through the song. Here are each of the meanings.
A Partridge in a Pear Tree – Jesus
Two Turtle Doves – The Old and New Testament
Three French Hens – The Kings bearing gifts
Four Callet (Calling) Birds – The Four Gospels
Five Golden Rings – The Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible)
Six Geese-a-Laying – The Six Days of Creation
Seven Swans-a-Swimming – Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Eight Maids-a-Milking – The Eight Beatitudes
Nine Ladies Dancing – Nine Fruits of the Spirit
Ten Lords-a-Leaping – The Ten Commandments
Eleven Pipers Piping – Eleven Apostles
Twelve Drummers Drumming – Twelve Points of the Apostles Creed
However there are some problems
in this theory. For one the first mention over the last century about a coded
catechism in this song is with this Canadian teacher. The idea had been further
perpetrated by religious scholars however with little additional evidence. You
would have to believe that there would be more significant sources to back up
this claim over the last couple centuries. The other major problem is that most
of these meanings are not a departure from the Protestant church. In reality
they are directly in line with nearly all major Christian denominations and
faiths. The actual origin of the song and its purpose are unknown with ideas
ranging from a child’s counting song, to a memory game played during Twelve
Night in which the leader would start and would have to memorize the subsequent
verses given by the participants. Whatever the purpose and origin of the song
one thing we do know is that there are a “Twelve Days of Christmas” which do
not lead up to Christmas Day but actually begin then.
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