Many of us are familiar with the holiday song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” What one might not be so aware of is the fact that these twelve days actually do not occur before Christmas, but rather afterwards – they are the twelve days that lead from Christmas to Epiphany on January 6th. I discuss these twelve days in a previous post here at the Crossroads, aptly named The Twelve Days of Christmas.
But what about the song? What exactly do each of the verses mean?
In days of old, these twelve days were a time of feasting and festivity, and thus many of the “gifts” in the song might actually refer to dishes that one would dine upon during this time. In fact, a version of the song exists in the west of France with the sequence being “a good stuffing without bones, two breasts of veal, three joints of beef, four pigs’ trotters, five legs of mutton, six partridges with cabbage, seven spitted rabbits, eight plates of salad, nine dishes for a chapter of canons, ten full casks, eleven beautiful full-breasted maidens, and twelve musketeers with their swords.”
Originally, it is said that the “Five Golden Rings” of the fifth verse referred not to jewelry, but rather to the rings found around the necks of certain game birds, such as the ring-necked pheasant. Thus, the first seven rounds all refer to birds.
Trying to determine the actual meaning of the song might be a lesson in futility, as it has never been satisfactorily explained exactly what these verses truly mean. Most likely it’s simply a song of fun and jest, with no specific message or lesson to be learned – religious or otherwise.
In the past few years, I have attempted to interpret the song via various graphics, artwork, and photographs of the different verses. An example of such can be found here at the Crossroads, with the final verse displaying twelve photographs of the gifts: “On the Twelfth Day…”
This year I’ve decided to try something a bit different: an edible version of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Each day I will interpret the gift from the view of a foodie (of which I unabashedly claim to be one)…showing a photo of a delectable dish and where possible including a recipe.
I hope that you enjoy my culinary efforts, and to each and all of you, I bid a most joyous and delicious holiday season. Happy dining!
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
I have always favored the muppets version of this song… LOL. I don’t know if there is a captioned version or not, though. 😦 But, I do find it interesting that nobody truly knows the meaning of the song. Glad it has survived the ages though. Very entertaining. Another good post, Osh!