Twelve Daze of Christmas

You may have received this same email. One of my regular correspondents forwarded me something interesting looking; I'd seen it before and given it credence because of its, well, credibility (plus my familiarity with the long-underground Catholic church in England. But I hadn't given this claim any further thought; here's the email s/he sent me this past week:

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 4:55 PM
Subject: New To Me

There is one Christmas Carol that has always baffled me.  What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas? Today, I found out.

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.  It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church.  Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
-Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
-Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
-The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.

-The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
-The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
-The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
-Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
-The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.
-The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
-The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

So there is your history for today. This knowledge was shared with me and I found it interesting and enlightening and now I know how that strange song became a Christmas Carol...so pass it on if you wish.

Merry (Twelve Days of) Christmas Everyone.....

Most of my readers (i.e., both of them) know that I turn to Snopes whenever I have a mind to look behind whuddaya-know emails circulating around out there; I should have checked this one earlier, too. See for yourself:

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/12days.asp

Essentially: false. Yes, the Catholic Church was persecuted and banned in England from the early sixteenth century well into the nineteenth. But the Anglican Church and the Catholic share nearly all the same core doctrines, coming up shy at just a few key areas – close enough, in fact, that some members of the Church of England refer to themselves as "Anglican Catholics", although there's no such animal.

In any case, nearly all the catechesis supposedly "hidden" in this old carol is in fact rock-solidly part of the Anglican/Episcopal doctrinal slate as well... so there was no need to tuck religious instruction away in symbol.

Yeah; it's a neat story – but just not true, I'm afraid. Which is not to say, of course, that Catholics did not suffer persecution and martyrdom during that span. Tertullian wrote way back in the late second century that "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church"... and much of this seed was sown "upon England's mountains green".

P.S.: Something else not addressed (pardon the pun) in that email – but covered at the Snopes page – is that the Twelve Days of Christmas begin on Christmas, and run through to January 6, or Epiphany: the date traditionally assigned to the visit of the three Magi/Kings. (25 + 12 = 37; 37 - 31 = 6; January 6 Q.E.D.) I'll harp on this more after Christmas.

"You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:32

Fa-la la-la-la, la-la, la, la...