The twelve days of Christmas? What are they and when do they start? Do they begin with December 13? Twelve days before Christmas? This year, Friday the 13th will be twelve days before Jesus is born. There just seems to be something sort of wrong with starting the holiday with a day that usually means bad luck. Imagine starting the song with, ‘On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me….a bad guy in a goalie mask with a double edged machete….’ Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like, ‘a partridge in a pear tree’. The other eleven days would just go down hill from there.
Fortunately, the twelve days actually begin with December 25th and go on to January 5th. They represent the Reader’s Digest version of the twelve days it took the three Wise Men to get to Jesus after he was born. Even though Jesus was about two years old by the time their caravan reached Bethlehem. The Jesus family had already moved from the stable to a house by then. I digress. So, why did the guy’s girlfriend in the song send him all of those useless gifts over the next 12 days? Seriously, what was a grown man in the 16th century going to do with a partridge and a pear tree? A partridge is basically a pigeon. One of those filthy flying rats that poop over everything. Then to his surprise he gets another pigeon and a couple of turtle doves the next day. Why? The pigeon needed company? As the week goes on, she sends him some French hens, apparently the hens in France laid better eggs than English hens, and what in everything holy is a calling bird?
Whatever it was, our guy gets 4 of them followed by the only thing that has value on this shopping list, 5 rings made of gold. Then the true love gifts her man 6 fabulous geese that can do what? You guessed it, lay more eggs. Then he gets some birds that don’t offer anything, the seven lazy swans are only good for swimming around the pond. But then, on day eight things get a little more interesting, that day she sends him eight cows along with eight maids to milk them. Lordy! Then, Amazon delivers him nine dancing ladies. No specifics on the type of dance, just that they dance. But then, a twist. She sends nine lords to the young man’s house and these lords are a leaping. They can’t be doing all of this milking, and dancing and leaping to no music, so the lover lady sends her dude eleven piping pipers. Finally, she gets to her twelfth present, twelve little boys beating out the rhythm of the holidays on their drums. Pipers and drums, leaping lords, dancing ladies, different species of fowl laying eggs and swimming, a group of maids milking cows. Remember the four calling birds? The original gift on the fourth day after Christmas was four ‘colly’ birds. Blackbirds that were said to be a delicacy at that time in England. The only one of her gifts that lover boy could eat, and it was taken away from him when the line was changed to ‘calling birds.’ Apparently representing the four gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Not to be confused with Paul, George, Ringo and John.
That leaves us with the first three gifts. French hens, turtle doves and a partridge. Why? How is that she saw these as so valuable to name them first? Even before those five gold rings we skipped over. The French hens are symbolic of her feelings for the boy. The hens from France were award wining poultry in the farm world of the 1700’s. Three of them were symbols of her faith, hope, and love. Her faith in the boy’s love, her hope in their future together and her unquestionable love for him. Two, the second gift of two turtle doves is driving home her innocence and peace that she feels with her lover. She is at ease with their relationship and feels blessed by the pace of the Lord with him. Bringing us to the first gift. A gift that on the surface seems silly and cumbersome, even out of place and useless. Beneath the partridge in the pear tree there is a deeper symbolism than the other eleven put together. Here she is talking about the reason for the season. The song is a Christmas Carol, and the first gift is the gift from God, of His Son, Jesus. The girl is giving her special someone the reminder that Jesus has been born, and the world should rejoice in its savior and king above all other gifts given and received on this day. That is why the 12 Days of Christmas begin on December 25th, the birthday of the Christ.
Merry Christmas!
Unusual Days
