12 Days of [Insert your own interpretation]
Well, I'll be.
For the longest time, I thought "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was a song from the Elizabethan era that contained seemingly secular symbols used by English Catholics to teach their children the Faith during a time of great persecution.
Boy, was I wrong. According to Sister Carol Gaeke, O.P., I wasn't nearly perceptive enough. Thankfully, she sets the record straight in a December 15 editorial in Cincinnati's Catholic Telegraph.
For instance, I had always thought that the "partridge in a pear tree" was Christ. Had I looked deeper, I would have discovered a "gold mine" beneath the pear tree "signifying the precious minerals of our planet."
In my benighted understanding of things, the "eight maids a'milking" represented the beatitudes. It's not as simple as that. As it turns out, the cows being milked are "symbols of our earth that needs to be tended and nurtured, not used up and destroyed by greed."
What's more, had I looked "beyond the surface gaety" of these symbols I would have discovered they form a puzzle, along the border of which are "global warfare, nuclear weapons, domestic violence, sexual, class and racial violence."
Thank goodness I now have both a deeper understanding and such incredibly rich imagery to go forth this Christmas and teach all nations.
Well actually Rich and the Nun are both wrong. The Twelve Days of Christmas was not a secret catechism song that Catholics used because of Anglican oppression. For one thing as the snopes article points out the origin of the song is probably French in the first place and second the items that supposedly had to be hidden are common to both Catholics and Anglicans in the first place.
Though I much prefer the Elizabethan urban legend to the politically correct version that says things like "Those three French hens in the tree have come from afar, like immigrants seeking to build a safe shelter in this wonderful place, far from horrendous war or grinding poverty that they have fled." Now I can easily believe that French hens would be running away from war. Besides things like the five golden rings obviously refer to the Olympics - duh.
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Thanks for the link.
Could not the song have been imported to England and the symbols "transformed" into tools by the recusants? In any event, Fr. Saunders's linked article does show a Catholic significance to many of them, e.g., "eight maids a'milking" refers to both the beatitudes and the Holy Days of Obligation.
I thought the 12 days of Christmas pertained to the 6 days before & the 6 days after ... it has some relevance in the Orthodox Church, doesn't it? I confess I've always wondered just what that song was about.
So what's to say both sides aren't right? One thing: how'd you like to be the True Love who gets all this stuff? What on earth to do with it all? Sell tickets? hee hee
The "5 Golden Rings" are the Olympics? Well, why not? Been that way in Georgia since 1996.
I guess the partridge in the pear tree is the legendary Parte T. Ridge in the Faire-Tree. When the song got transported from France to England, 'Parte Ridge' was confused with 'partridge' and 'Faire-Tree' became 'Pear Tree'.
Then the Recusants invented the story about the Carol being a hidden Cathecism to help their future descendants to not forget about this basics of the Faith, even if they did not actually used them as such. Since if people believe this legend, it would be hard not to remember these basic Tenets of the Faith anymore. :D
This is the best 12 days of Christmas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owK5tHjL0aE
(as long as you don't mind the lack of any Christian reference and can pick up the Aussie references along the way)
Jeron,
The twelve days of Christmas are the twelve days following Christmas, leading up to the Solemnity of the Epiphany (January 6, where it's not been disastrously transferred to Sunday).
Thanks for pointing that out, Tim.