History of the 12 Days of Christmas: They’re after Christmas?
The 12 Days of Christmas are the dozen days in the liturgical or ecclesiastical calendar of the Western Church between the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child (Christmas Day, December 25) and the coming of the Wise Men, or Magi, to visit at his house in Bethlehem (Epiphany, January 6).
The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates during Epiphany rather than the Western Christmas Day. January 6th is observed as Three Kings Day in Hispanic and Latin American culture, or simply the “Day of the Kings.”
Question: Aren’t the 12 Days of Christmas the days before Christmas when you shop for presents?
Answer: No, the four-week season before Christmas is called Advent, meaning “the coming” of Christ.
The dozen days following Christmas are the 12 Days of Christmas; the last is known as Twelfth Night. The Twelfth Night is the holiday that marks the twelfth night of the Christmas Season, the Eve of Epiphany.
During the Tudor period in England, the “Lord of Misrule” would run the festivities of Christmas, ending on this Twelfth Night. Shakespeare‘s play by the same name was intended to be presented as a Twelfth Night entertainment and was first performed during this time in 1602.
The festival was particularly popular during the Middle Ages, especially in England, where some traditions were adapted from older pagan customs. Modern Neopaganism celebrates this time under the name of Midwinter or Yule. Yule or Yuletide, which, while it serves as an archaic term for Christmastide, hearkens back to earlier German and Norse traditions.
Question: But wasn’t the 12 Days of Christmas song used as a memory aid for catechism by Roman Catholics in England during the period 1558 to 1829, at which time Parliament finally emancipated Catholicism there, who were prohibited from ANY practice of their faith by law — private OR public — where each gift is a hidden meaning to the teachings of the faith?
Answer: This is unlikely for several reasons:
At first glance, nothing in this song is uniquely Catholic in belief compared to Protestant catechism. Any of the items in it could be embraced by Catholics and Protestants alike.
It is true that Queen Elizabeth I‘s 1558 Act of Uniformity and Act of Supremacy did indeed abolish what was called the “old worship,” the open practice of Catholicism was forbidden by law. That is, until 1829, when the English Parliament passed the Catholic Emancipation Act. That said, nothing in this song would have been taken as particularly Catholic or offensive to Protestant Anglican sensibilities.
Secondly, while there are differences between Anglican (Protestant Church of England) and Catholic belief, none of those show up in the “hidden meaning” of the song, with the possible exception of the number of sacraments — 7 for Catholics, 2 for Anglicans. The “7 swans a-swimming” could be the 7 Gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, acceptable to both Catholics and Protestants.
12 Days of Christmas: Confusion
However, it may be possible that this song has been confused with another song called “A New Dial” (also known as “In Those 12 Days.”) This song goes back to at least 1625, assigning religious meanings to each of the 12 days of Christmas though not for teaching a catechism. During those days, there was a custom of singing songs called a “memory-and-forfeits performance,” in which people added verses to a song cumulatively until the loser of the game forgot the first verses.
Question: If my “true love” bought all these things for me, what would it cost?
With inflation jumping at historic levels, according to the Christmas Price Index as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index reports that it’ll cost $45,523 to purchase the “partridge in a pear tree,” “eight maids a-milking,” and all the rest this year… not counting the refrains in the song.
That’s up a total of 10.5%.
Question: Why are so many of the gifts birds?
Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
billpetro.com
Well done Bill.
For several years now, the Walchek family has enjoyed stretching our Christmas celebration through the 12 Days of Christmas through Epiphany. (The girls used to put grass by their beds for the Magi camels!)
During our annualTwelfth Night party friends gather for food and fellowship followed by a time around the fire pit where we share hopes, dreams prayers and aspirations for the new year. The fire is kindled with the trunk of our Christmas tree and each participant is invited to share a prayer and then toss a branch from the tree onto the fire. The sap filled, dry evergreen boughs elicit abundant sparks, crackling and flames which serve as a heaven-bound punctuation—a multi-sensory “amen”.
Happy Yuletide!
Thank you for clearing this up! I’m a librarian (community & school both) and wanted to have some “12 Days of Christmas” themed programs, but wanted to be accurate!!
Thank you for this post! I was all set to order a “12 Days of Christmas” puzzle from Uncommon Goods for grandchildren–it sounded very good, until I read the description in the catalogue (hard copy and online) which said it was about Advent.