The Twelve Days of Christmas
was far more than just an entertaining Christmas song to Irish Catholics when the Protestant rulers in England were determined to “stamp out” Catholicism. Much as the grandmothers of modern Russia kept the faith alive while Christianity was outlawed in the USSR, the Catholic faithful found a way to remind the old generation and teach the new. The song was originally written as a clandestine method of teaching the sacraments of the Catholic Church at a time when to do so blatantly could mean criminal punishment.
If you find this a bit far fetched, consider that on the first day of Christmas “my true love” could most definitely signify Almighty God and the gift that He gave on Christmas was Jesus, the Christ child. Two turtle doves could refer to the old and new testaments of the Bible while Matthew, Mark, Luke and John certainly were “four calling birds.”
While the Christmas season in North America consists largely of the “45 Shopping Days before Christmas,” in Ireland the true meaning of Christmas is still celebrated from Christmas Eve right through until Epiphany.
Here are the words to the Twelve Days of Christmas, just in case in you have forgotten.
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
A partridge in a pear tree.
On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Three French hens
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Four calling birds
Three French hens
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Five golden rings
Four calling birds
Three French hens
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.
(And so it goes, all the way up to the 12th Day......)
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Twelve drummers drumming
Eleven pipers piping
Ten lords a-leaping
Nine ladies dancing
Eight maids a-milking
Seven swans a-swimming
Six geese a-laying
Five golden rings
Four calling birds
Three French hens
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.
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