Twelve Days of Christmas

Since it Christmas week and since there are so many interesting songs/hymns/carols to write about, I have decided to send out the “Hymn of the week” every day this week.  I will warn you in advance.  There will be some songs that your initial reaction might be “That’s not a Christmas song.”  There will be some that might cause you to say “That’s not a hymn.”  But, I hope that you grant me some “artistic license” because I do think each of these songs/carols/hymns can add something to our celebration of Christ’s birth.

The first one I would like to do will probably emote one of the reactions I mentioned above.  You will probably be saying to yourself, “Jeff, this is definitely not a hymn,” but work with me.  The first song I selected is “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”  I will spare you from reading the entire song day-by-day and will just include the twelfth day which lists all the gifts from the “true love.”

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent 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!

Now to the story behinds this song.  It is believed by some that this particular song was written in the 1500’s by persecuted Catholics.  It is believed that these believers developed the song for children to remember certain things of religious importance in a catechism-like format, but with a hidden meaning so that the persecutors would not know they were Catholic.  The following is a list of the “hidden” meaning of these items in the song:

1. Partridge in a pear tree was representative of Jesus Christ.

2. Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.

3. Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.

4. The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

5. The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.

6. The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.

7. Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit: Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.

8. The eight maids a milking were the eight beatitudes.

9. Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Ghost: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control.

10. The ten lords a-leaping were the Ten Commandments.

11. Eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.

12. Twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles’ Creed.

Well, I will be honest.  I couldn’t determine for sure if this was actually the story behind this song.  Some websites I found were ardently against this story behind the song, and others were confident that it was the real history.  The more I thought about it though, I asked myself, “Does it really matter?”  Does the fact that the story may or may not be true change the fact that we can find spiritual meaning in this song?  I have heard people say about the Christian church in America in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s that they “could find the devil under every rock.”  Whether it was “picture shows,” or “playing cards” or “going bowling,” all of these things were “of the devil” to many Christian people in the early 1900’s.  

I wonder, however, if the opposite can be true.  Can we find Christian truth in the things of this world?  Can we find truth in partridges, hens, and geese?  Can we do as the Bible instructs us to, and “think on whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are lovely…?”  Can we recognize that “every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above?” and be grateful for simple little songs like this one?  Can we take the simple things from the song “Twelve Days of Christmas” and find spiritual meaning in them?  I sure was able to. Thinking about the “Four calling birds” as representative of the four Gospel writers gave me some new insight.  Isn’t that the purpose of the four Gospel letters – to call sinners to a Savior?  Or thinking about twelve drummers intently and repetitively learning the core Christian doctrines of the Church in a rhythm with no variance or “off-beat” theology.  

For me, and I hope for you, I will never listen to the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song again and wonder what is has to do with Christmas.  I will just try and remember some of the deeper spiritual truths from the “hidden” meanings and be glad someone revealed those to me.