Hey Fishlips......................Do you know if this is true?

I have received that e-mail also throughout the past few years. I never knew if it was true or just an urban legend. It is not something taught to you as a child or talked about in church. This is what I found researching it.

"Yes, it is historically true that this old Christmas Carol was a means of catechesis for little British Catholic children when being a Catholic, especially a priest, was extremely perilous. There isn't any good historical reference to authenticate it"

So I guess we will never know it there is any real truth to it. I had heard that the children's song Ring Around The Rosy was about the black plague. Anyone else hear that?

Back to the 12 Days of Christmas. The 12 days are actually the 12 days from Christmas on Dec. 25 until Epiphany, when the wise men arrived which the church celebrates on Jan. 6. The Christmas season in the church goes from December 25 until the Sunday following Epiphany on which day we celebrate "The Baptism of the Lord" which marks one of the early manifestations of Jesus' identiy and at the same time marks the beginning of his public ministry. So it marks a turning point from Jesus' private life to his public life.

If you go into a Catholic church now you will not see any Christmas decorations until Christmas Day (or the vigil mass on Christmas Eve evening) nor do we sing Christmas hyms yet. We do sing Advent songs like "O Come, O Come Emmanuel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBfPnUZh-Bc a song that everyone knows. (I like this version because it shows the words.) We are now celebrating Advent, in anticipation the comming of the Savior on Dec. 25. The Christmas flowers/decorations will remain on the altar and we will sing Christmas hyms from Christmas Day until the end of the Christmas season which this year I believe is Jan. 10th. So that is how we celebrate the Christmas season according to the Catholic calendar. There really are a 12 days of Christmas but I don't kow for sure if the words to the song have the hidden meanings.

Here is a "expanded" version of what you posted, JW. Again, I don't know if there was real symbolism intended when the song was written or if it is something that someone made up years after.


1st Day: The partridge in a pear tree is Christ Jesus upon the Cross. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge because she would feign injury to decoy a predator away from her nestlings. She was even willing to die for them. The tree is the symbol of the fall of the human race through the sin of Adam and Eve. It is also the symbol of its redemption by Jesus Christ on the tree of the Cross.

2nd Day: The "two turtle doves" refers to the Old and New Testaments.

3rd Day: The "three French hens" stand for faith, hope and love—the three gifts of the Spirit that abide (1 Corinthians 13) .

4th Day: The "four calling birds" refers to the four evangelists who wrote the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—which sing the song of salvation through Jesus Christ.

5th Day: The "five golden rings" represents the first five books of the Bible, also called the Jewish Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

6th Day: The "six geese a-laying" is the six days of creation.

7th Day: The "seven swans a-swimming" refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord.

8th Day: The "eight maids a milking " reminded children of the eight beatitudes listed in the Sermon on the Mount.

9th Day: The "nine ladies dancing" were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

10th Day: The "ten lords a-leaping" represents the Ten Commandments

11th Day: The "eleven pipers piping" refers to the eleven faithful apostles.

12th Day: The ‘twelve drummers drumming" were the twelve points of belief expressed in the Apostles’ Creed: belief in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, made man, crucified, died and arose on the third day, that he sits at the right hand of the father and will come again, the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.

I also heard that explanation several years ago. Many of the nursery rhymes have hidden meanings. I googled "nursery rhyme meanings and found several sites with origins. Here is one.

http://www.rhymes.org.uk/