Well, it’s getting close to Christmas and its snowing outside… so I thought I might as well continue with the Christmas theme. Both my faithful readers know over the years I’ve discussed the t2 days of Christmas a few times and a few years ago, I talked about the lyrics to “The 12 Days of Christmas” being coded references to Christianity — the song was supposedly written to help Christians learn and pass on the beliefs of their faith while avoiding persecution. (You can find the various gift descriptions in the archives of this blog, if you’d like to check them again.)
The theory sounds good on the surface, but it doesn’t hold up under closer examination. There are a number of arguments that shoot holes in the logic, but the one that makes the most sense to me is that if Christians were so restricted from practicing their faith that they had to conceal messages in a song, they obviously wouldn’t be able to celebrate Christmas in the first place, much less sing Christmas carols.
So now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about the 12 days of Christmas and the Christmas carol with the same name…
December 25th marks the official start of the 12 days of Christmas. The 12 days of Christmas is the period in Christian theology that marks the span between the birth of Christ and the coming of the Magi, the three wisemen. It begins on Christmas, obviously, and runs through January 6 — the Epiphany, sometimes also called Three King’s Day. The four weeks preceding Christmas are collectively known as Advent, which begins four Sundays before Christmas and ends on December 24.
Each of the 12 days traditionally celebrate a feast day for a saint and/or have different celebrations. Some people choose to mark the 12-day period by observing the feast days of the various saints and planning daily Christmas-related activities, but for many, things go back to business as usual after Christmas.
It’s hard to mention the 12 Days of Christmas without thinking of the Christmas carol with that name. The lyrics of the song have resulted in a number of theories as to their meaning, but the real history of the carol is a bit murky. The earliest known version first appeared in a 1780 children’s book called Mirth Without Mischief. Some historians believe the song is French in origin, but most all agree that it was designed as a “memory and forfeits” game, in which singers tested their recall of the lyrics and had to award their opponents a “forfeit,” like a kiss or a favor of some kind if they made a mistake.
There have been many variations of the lyrics over time — some mention “bears-a-baiting” or “ships-a-sailing,” some name the singer’s mother as the gift giver instead of their true love. But the song most of us are familiar with comes from an English composer named Frederic Austin.
So even though there really are 12 days of Christmas, we most often think of the song where the singer brags about all the cool gifts they received from their true love during the 12 days. It’s a long song, as each verse builds on the previous one, and serves as a really effective way to annoy people at a party or in the car.
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