The Twelve Days of Christmas - They're When?
By
Pearl Homiak
Believe it or not,
December 25th is the first day of Christmas. You'd never know it, especially if
you happen to be shopping anytime after Halloween. Plastic crèches, soldiers,
and Santa Clauses; Christmas trees, colored and sometimes blinking lights; red
ribbons, candy canes, and homes and lawns with varying degrees of lighted
decorations-all begin to mushroom each year from the beginning of November, and
sometimes even sooner.
I remember that
when I was very young Christmas was hardly even mentioned before Thanksgiving.
No one that we knew put up a Christmas tree until a few days before Christmas
(December 25th; "Orthodox Christmas" took place on January 7th in
those days. However, most Orthodox people decorated for Christmas on December
25th, which was celebrated as a gift-giving day. January 7th was reserved for
the religious observance of Christmas). Even department stores held off until
their day-after-Thanksgiving sales. Christmas parties took place after
Christmas, and people sang and played recordings of Christmas carols from
Christmas Eve until New Year's Day or even up to Epiphany. The Christmas season
was a meaningful time back then, but what is it now?
There is a song we
all know called "The Twelve Days of Christmas" that describes gift
giving over a period of time-twelve days. St. Ephraim the Syrian first
mentioned the period of the "twelve days," according to one source,
sometime before the year 400.
The Council of Tours made it
official in 597. This period of time begins at Christmas and ends at Epiphany.
The origin of the
song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," has been recently disputed. I
had no idea it was more than a cute song until a friend of mine e-mailed an
explanation of it to me a few years ago. According to the missive I received,
the song was actually a "catechism song" used by Catholics in England
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The song was supposedly used to
teach children the tenets of the faith during this period, when law forbade
practicing Catholicism. As such, the song's gifts and other images have the
following religious representations (compiled from various sources):
- True love = God
- Me
= every baptized person
- Partridge = Jesus Christ, who, like a bird, will protect God's
defenseless children
- Pear tree = the Cross, which was made from a tree.
- 2 Turtle doves = the Old and New Testaments; also, two turtle doves
were sacrificed when Jesus was first brought to the temple,
- 3 French hens = faith, hope, and charity (sacrificial giving); also,
gold, frankincense, and myrrh from the Wise Men
- 4 Calling birds = the four Gospels and/or the four Evangelists
- 5 Golden rings = the first five books of the Old Testament (the
Pentateuch) which gives the history of man's fall from grace
- 6 Geese a-laying = the six days of creation
- 7 Swans a-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (Romans 12:6-8);
also, the seven sacraments
- 8 Maids a-milking = the eight Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-10); also, milking
symbolizes Christ's love for us
- 9 Ladies dancing = the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians
5:22-23)
- 10 Lords a-leaping = the Ten Commandments
- 11 Pipers piping = the eleven faithful Apostles
- 12 Drummers drumming = the twelve points of the Apostles Creed; also, the
twelve Apostles preaching
Recently I came
across a different source of the song. It seems that several centuries ago in
France children played a non-religious memory game called "The Twelve Days
of Christmas." Each child recited a verse of the song. If someone missed a
verse he/she had a consequence. This game was apparently first recorded in a
book published in England in the late 18th century. However, the game could
have been known for a long time before that. Further, the religious application
of it might have been based on the French game in the first place. Who knows?
And, anyway, is it really important? There is more than one way to convey the
tenets of faith, and singing representative songs is one way to do it.
We still hear the
song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," but it has nothing to do with
Christianity. (I haven't found any information about children today playing a
game called by the same name). Sadly, many modern-day children don't know the
real story of Christmas, of Christ's Nativity. For them Christmas is only a
great decorating, celebrating, and present-getting time that happens to begin
revving up after Halloween and reaches its high point on December 25th. (Even
Thanksgiving gets minimized). After that, everything returns to
"normal," except for more celebrating on New Year's Eve.
Maybe people
think the "twelve days of Christmas" start on December 13th and are
the most important shopping days before Christmas. To some people "the
twelve days of Christmas" might even be the twelve
Saturday-and-Sunday-department-store-best-sale-days between Halloween and
Christmas (there really are twelve Saturdays and Sundays during this time, and
don't most people shop then?).
I see nothing wrong with shopping
well in advance for the sake of my personal economy and more unique and
unhurried gift selection. (In fact, one year I actually got all of my Christmas
shopping done before advent started. The only store I went to during advent was
the grocery story, and that as rarely as I could. What a meaningful advent and
Christmas I had that year!). However, the untimely pre-season decorating, the
never-ending-department-store-carol-playing, and the during-advent Christmas
partying are too much for me. I'm all for getting things back into perspective.
We shouldn't allow ourselves to be dictated to by advertising and department
store companies. Let's put the celebration of Christmas back where it belongs.
Awhile back I
decided to make changes in my Christmas-related habits to refocus my celebration
of Christ's Nativity. I stopped playing tapes of Christmas carols during
advent. Instead, I started playing them on Christmas day. We also continued to
turn the TV off during advent, something we have done for more than twenty
years (except for one chaotic year).
Over the last
several years I have deliberately been sending my Christmas cards after
December 25th when I can truly say, "Christ is Born! Glorify Him!" It
just seems to make more sense that way. While everyone else is watching TV or
snoozing after Christmas dinner, I sit down after the dishes are done and write
out my Christmas cards. If I send out a Christmas letter, I write it then.
Within the next couple of days, I mail out my cards with joy, rather than the
hurry-up-let's-get-this-over-with anxiety that plagues pre-Christmas
card-senders. If I'm not home for Christmas, then I get the cards ready for
mailing the next day. So if you receive a Christmas card from me shortly after
Christmas, it's not late. It's right on time!
I like the idea of
Christmas starting instead of ending on December 25th. We usually don't
celebrate our own birthdays until the day they occur or later. So why do we, in
effect, celebrate Jesus Christ's birthday (Nativity) so long in advance?
Christmas trees and outdoor decorations could still be put up ahead of time.
However, they don't have to be turned on until Christmas Eve. After all, no one
would light the candles on a birthday cake two months before the birthday
party.
It doesn't take
much effort to make these changes, but it does feel weird at first. Yet it's
not a matter of bucking the establishment. It's really all about getting things
back into perspective. And it just makes sense.
Our society has
come a long way from St. Ephraim the Syrian's statement about the significant
twelve-day period between Christmas and Epiphany. However, I question our
ultimate destination. We seem to proclaim Christmas earlier and earlier as time
goes on.
September 11 was a wake up call to
put our lives in America back on track. I believe that means more than just
becoming more patriotic. Everything Americans do in life needs to be
reevaluated and adjusted so it has the proper meaning and priority. Focusing
our celebration of Christmas after December 25th could help us do that.
The Twelve Days of
Christmas became important to western Christians many centuries ago. However,
this period ultimately degenerated to become filled with superstitions, fear,
and other negative elements. The song," The Twelve Days of Christmas,"
was used to teach spiritual truths, then it, too, degenerated, becoming a cute
folksong. From now on let's limit the pre-Christmas hustle and bustle. Let's
use the real "twelve days"-between Christmas and Epiphany-to pull
away from the over commercialization of Christ's Nativity. Let's start making
the Twelve Days of Christmas something special and joyful-a real celebration of
Christ's birth-for us in America and for our children. We will be glad we did.
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