James Baquet

Have you ever heard the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” and wondered, “What? Isn’t Christmas just one day?”

Well, some Christian groups teach that Christmas rightly begins on Dec. 25 — the “first day of Christmas” —and ends on Jan. 5, the day before the “Feast of the Epiphany.” Add them up and you get 12 days.

Why Jan. 5? Some churches say that Epiphany begins a new season, celebrating when the baby Jesus was revealed to the outside world upon the visit of the “Wise Men” (sometimes erroneously called the “Three Kings”). It goes on until Lent, which prepares for Easter. (Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas, preparing for that day.) So what about those 12 days? It’s what is called a “cumulative song,” where each verse adds to the previous. The first is easy:

“On the first day of Christmas [Dec. 25] my true love gave to me

a partridge in a pear tree.”

This is the first of many birds mentioned.

Then, “On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.”

The third day adds “three French hens” to the previous, and so on.

Now here’s something interesting: Each day, the gifts of the previous days are repeated. So by Day Three, the singer has three partridges in three pear trees, four turtle doves, and three French hens. Get it? One bird the first day, three the second, six the third, and so on.

Day Four brings “four calling birds,” Day Six “six geese a-laying,” and Day Seven “seven swans a-swimming.” How many birds so far? By my count, 69! I have left out the “five gold rings” given on Days Five, Six, and Seven (now 15!) because I am only counting birds (though some people say the “rings” are actually ring-necked pheasants, to be consistent with the other birds mentioned).

From Day Eight to Day 12, all the gifts are people (!): eight maids a-milking, nine ladies dancing, 10 lords a-leaping, 11 pipers piping, and 12 drummers drumming.

Wow! Where did the singer put 184 birds, 40 rings, and 140 people? That’s 364 gifts. Just one less than the number of days in a year. Oh, did I mention the 12 pear trees?

Anyway, the song is great fun to sing. Find a copy and try it!

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. in this case, a holy day

2. a section of a song

3. adding up together

4. properly

5. jumping around

6. young women

7. shown, exposed

8. people who play a certain type of wind instrument

9. incorrectly

10. done the same way each time