17 December 2008

Ever wondered about the 12 days of christmas?

Many of our Nursery Rhymes, like ring-a-ring of roses, have meanings that don't mean anything to today's children, yet still exist in a modern world. I did a bit of research on a christmas carol, which I felt had a hidden meaning but didn't know it. So I present to you, my findings on The 12 Days of Christmas - the Carol.

It has some belief that it is a catchism song, but no real evidence exists on this, however, that doesn't mean it isn't the case and even though you can bend the song to twist many meanings I quite like the idea that the following is the case :

The "true love" mentioned in the song doesn’t refer to an earthly suitor, but to God Himself. The "me" who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. i.e. the Church.

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, willing to die in order to protect her youngsters. The tree is the symbol of the fall of the human race through the sin of Adam and Eve.

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 Holy Spirit

4th Day
The "four calling birds" refers to the four evangelists who wrote the Gospels— Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

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 : 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.

Don't forget to put your guesses on the Giveaway post to try and win the Calendar - you have until Friday 19th December at 12.00 Noon. The more people that enter, the more the Air Ambulance funds will benefit - I will explain in a later post.

4 comments:

Annette said...

This is interesting.
It's amazing just what the carols mean.
Fascinating.

Dark Side said...

I never knew that, thanks for your wonderful insight once again..xx

Anonymous said...

Ooo, that is VERY interesting indeed.

I tell ya, you learn something new EVERY day :-)

Thanks for that!

x

Anonymous said...

Sage, hello! I love your motto in your info about working to live but not living to work. I believe that it's important to enjoy the life you live rather than just working at a job, just so you can pay the bills and go through the motions.

I also see that you have great taste in movies as well :)

Thanks for this post. It was interesting to me because I think about this song every Christmas season and have always wanted to look up the meaning. I didn't realize it was so poetic.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I'll be back to visit yours, most definitely!