The Twelve Days of Christmas Song

The Twelve Days of Christmas (see previous blog) are coming to a close, but before it does let’s consider briefly the song of the same name.

Rather than repeating at length what’s written elsewhere, this blog will have various links you can check out yourself.

Let’s start with the Wikipedia  entry, but before you do, remember that Wikipedia is a public domain encyclopedia and not everything that’s on it is accurate.  However, things stated are often referenced from elsewhere and the list of elsewheres is at the bottom of each article, so it’s a good starting point. 

Now one of the theories of the origins of the song has sparked a bit of a debate – it is a modern theory that the song is written in code as a Catechism song for young Catholics – to remind them about the tenets of their faith during the Protestant Reformation, when many tried to ban all the Catholic practices.  The gifts in this instance represent the following:

1 True Love refers to God
2 Turtle Doves refers to the Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens refers to Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds refers to the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings refers to the first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.
6 Geese A-laying refers to the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the sacraments
8 Maids A-milking refers to the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing refers to the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping refers to the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping refers to the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming refers to the points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed

The website http://www.crivoice.org/cy12days.html goes into more detail about what each of these means.

I found the opinions expressed on the following three sites quite interesting in relation to this discussion.  You should read then yourself – they’re only short – to see the context of the paragraphs I’ve quoted.

Firstly:-   http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/music/12days.asp 

On this page, it’s pointed out that the tenets of the Anglican Church and the Catholic church are pretty much the same, so the suggestion that the Catholics use the song to remember their rites because they couldn’t commit anything to writing in England about them during the time of the reformation seems to me, at least, to be somewhat flawed, especially as they’re pretty much the same between the two churches.

The site does suggest, in passing, that perhaps it was a song that was developed by Christians who could not openly practise their faith in societies where it was forbidden.  Keep this in mind for the moment.

Secondly:-  http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/christmaslore/a/12_days_of_christmas_meaning_3.htm

This site puts forward another explanation that states the song is one about love and fertility because of the symbols used in it – see the extract below:

Far from finding any religious significance in "The Twelve Days of Christmas," some scholars, including University of Massachusetts classics professor Edward Phinney, argue that it's first and foremost a love song. "If you think of all the things being presented," he said in a 1990 newspaper interview, "you realize they're all gifts from a lover to a woman. Some of them are rather impossible to give, like eight maids a milking and nine ladies dancing. All those ladies and dancing and pipers and drums imply this is a wedding."

And then, of course, there are the decidedly un-Biblical fertility symbols — the partridge in a pear tree, for example. "The pear is equivalent to the heart and the partridge is a famous aphrodisiac," Phinney said. And how about those six geese a-laying! Seven of the song's 12 verses feature birds of various kinds, Phinney observed, all of them symbols of fertility. "The whole song seems to me to point to a festival of joy and love more appropriate to a secular holiday like Valentine's Day or May Day than a religious holiday," he said.

Thirdly:-  http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Notes_On_Carols/twelve_days_of_christmas.htm

This page spends quite a bit of time on the song being a nursery rhyme or children’s game according to sources in the 1800s, though the writer makes a couple of comments I found interesting, viz:

With reference to it being a code about the Catholic catechism –

Most commentators discount this version concerning the origin of the song for the fundamental reason that the most of the elements were common to both the Church of Rome and the Church of England, and because the song probably originated in France.

In keeping with the religious connotations, however, Douglas Brice* notes that

"in folk-lore the pear is an emblem of fertility and the partridge an emblem of the Evil One". He also notes that the pipe and drum  have always been regarded as symbolizing the harmonious relationship between the good Christian and his Creator. He concludes that "The presence of the Evil one in the genealogical tree would appear to be a reference to Man in his fallen state awaiting Redemption through the Passion of Christ."

*Douglas Brice, The Folk Carol of England (London: Herberg Jenkins, 1967)

In this case the pear and partridge mean something slightly different to what Professor Edward Phinney stated above (where the pear = heart and the partridge = aphrodisiac).

Let’s go back further though……

According to one source, [the Twelve Days of Christmas] was first mentioned as a festal tide by the eastern Father, Ephraem Syrus, at the end of the fourth century, and was declared to be such by the western Council of Tours in 567 A.D. 

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the song was around at that time and most likely was not, but the festival it relates to may have been, in one form or another.

As a song, Elizabeth Poston** reports that an early version dates back to a thirteenth-century manuscript in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (B. 14. 39) entitled 'Twelfth Day'.

**Elizabeth Poston, The Second Penguin Book of Christmas Carols (Penguin: Hammondsworth, 1970)

Ah-ha!!!  Well that kind of rules out the theory that the song was BASED on the Catholic catechism BECAUSE of the Protestant Reformation.  However, it could have been adapted to serve that purpose at that time. 

And perhaps, as mentioned briefly on the Snopes website, it could have been a song created for Christians who weren’t allowed to practice their faith a long time ago – before the Roman Catholic church emerged so strongly and Christianity became the dominant religion in the world.

One last thing to quote which nicely sums up the ‘religious’ meaning of the song is the P.S. that follows the article on the topic on the Catholic Information Network, addressing the catechism idea – see http://www.cin.org/twelvday.html

P.S. It has come to our attention that this tale is made up of both fact and fiction. Hopefully it will be accepted in the spirit it was written. As an encouragement to people to keep their faith alive, when it is not easy, and when any outward expressions of their faith could mean their life. Today there are still people living under similar conditions, may this tale give them courage, and determination to use any creative means at their disposal to keep their faith alive.

So, think what you like about the song and about Christmas in general.  In the end, I believe it all comes down to the Spirit of Christmas which I’ve already mentioned here and there in this series of blogs.