The lavish gifting of people and poultry just seems inappropriate. What kind of true love gives people and birds for Christmas? I can see the gold, but the rest seems a bit much.
2006-12-21 04:53:09 · 5 answers · asked by hutmikttmuk 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Holidays ➔ Christmas
Perhaps you misunderstand the true 12 days of Christmas, since you information comes from a Christmas carol. The 12 days of Christmas span from Christmas day to the Epiphany, the day of which the wise men arrived to bring gifts to the baby Jesus.
In the past Christmas celebrations fell on these days, December 25 to January 6, not any where from the end of November to Christmas day, as people do now. In my house we strive as much as possible to keep our celebration in true tradition. It is much easier. No need to balance shopping, baking and decorating with parties, family functions and entertaining.
2006-12-21 05:08:23 · answer #1 · answered by LAUGHING MAGPIE 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Two of the three kings gave Myrrh and Frankincense and they are fragrances... which goes to show you perfume has always been a perfect gift...
and another king gave gold, which is kind of like a gift card. so that seems okay.
Lavish gift giving? in my world it's not really lavish. i don't have the money for it to gbe lavish. i always thought about it as being generous as opposed to lavish.
Poultry? How can poultry be inappropriate?
It is a good deal more than just a repetitious melody with pretty phrases and a list of strange gifts.
Catholics in England during the period 1558 to 1829, when Parliament finally emancipated Catholics in England, were prohibited from ANY practice of their faith by law - private OR public. It was a crime to BE a Catholic.
"The Twelve Days of Christmas" was written in England as one of the "catechism songs" to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith - a memory aid, when to be caught with anything in *writing* indicating adherence to the Catholic faith could not only get you imprisoned, it could get you hanged, or shortened by a head - or hanged, drawn and quartered, a rather peculiar and ghastly punishment I'm not aware was ever practiced anywhere else. Hanging, drawing and quartering involved hanging a person by the neck until they had almost, but not quite, suffocated to death; then the party was taken down from the gallows, and disembowelled while still alive; and while the entrails were still lying on the street, where the executioners stomped all over them, the victim was tied to four large farm horses, and literally torn into five parts - one to each limb and the remaining torso.
The songs gifts are hidden meanings to the teachings of the faith. The "true love" mentioned in the song doesn't refer to an earthly suitor, it refers to God Himself. The "me" who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge which feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, much in memory of the expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered thee under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but thou wouldst not have it so..."
The other symbols mean the following:
2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
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, the seven sacraments
8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed
2006-12-21 05:06:53 · answer #2 · answered by Linda M 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Hidden Meaning of the 12 Days of Christmas
2006-12-21 05:00:42 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes I can due to I only give small gifts to my GrandAngels NOT birds and people I think that was just a song of long ago doing that I do not think it was actually done.
2006-12-21 04:56:30 · answer #4 · answered by grbarnaba 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
there is only one day of christmas, and it's on christmas
2006-12-21 05:02:17 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋