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1. 

   capndunzzl said, 6 months ago

   …actually is a religion code.
2. 

   fear-ciuil said, 6 months ago

   @capndunzzl

   You sure?
3. 

   Linda1259 said, 6 months ago

   @fear-ciuil

   He’s sure and so am I.
4. 

   bhinkle said, 6 months ago

   A bit of modern folklore claims that the song’s lyrics were written as a “catechism song” to help young Catholics learn their faith, at a time when practising Catholicism was criminalized in England (1558 until 1829). There is no primary evidence supporting this claim, and no evidence that the claim is historical, or “anything but a fanciful modern day speculation.” The theory is of relatively recent origin. It was first suggested by Canadian English teacher and hymnologist Hugh D. McKellar in a short article, “How to Decode the Twelve Days of Christmas,” published in 1979. In a later article published in the music journal The Hymn, he reiterates that the associations are his.²⁶ The idea was further popularized by a Catholic priest, Fr. Hal Stockert, in an article he wrote in 1982 and posted online in 1995.
5. 

   sue.meacham said, 6 months ago

   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
6. 

   Comic Minister said, 6 months ago

   Zero Gabby.
7. 

   Penny Robinson Fan Club said, 6 months ago

   @bhinkle

   In other words, about on the line of Ring Around a Rosie being about the Black Plague, and other such outright hoaxes.
8. 

   Neo Blakkrstal said, 6 months ago

   @bhinkle

   And in keeping with this theme, here is a classic from Frank Kelly who played Father Jack Hackett on the Brittish sitcom Father Ted:

   Day One

   Dear Nuala,
   Thank you very much for your lovely present of a partridge in a pear-tree. We’re getting the hang of feeding the partridge now, although it was difficult at first to win its confidence. It bit the mother rather badly on the hand but they’re good friends now and we’re keeping the pear-tree indoors in a bucket. Thank you again.
   Yours affectionately,
   Gobnait O’Lúnasa

   Day Two

   Dear Nuala,
   I cannot tell you how surprised we were to hear from you so soon again and to receive your lovely present of two turtle doves. You really are too kind. At first the partridge was very jealous and suspicious of the doves and they had a terrible row the night the doves arrived. We had to send for the vet but the birds are okay again and the stitches are due to some out in a week or two. The vet’s bill was £8 but the mother is over her annoyance now and the doves and the partridge are watching the telly from the pear-tree as I write.
   Yours ever,
   Gobnait

   Day Three

   Dear Nuala,
   We must be foremost in your thoughts. I had only posted my letter when the three French hens arrived. There was another sort-out between the hens and the doves, who sided with the partridge, and the vet had to be sent for again. The mother was raging because the bill was £16 this time but she has almost cooled down. However, the fact that the birds’ droppings keep falling down on her hair while she’s watching the telly, doesn’t help matters. Thanking you for your kindness.
   I remain,
   Your Gobnait

   Day Four

   Dear Nuala,
   You mustn’t have received my last letter when you were sending us the four calling birds. There was pandemonium in the pear-tree again last night and the vet’s bill was £32. The mother is on sedation as I write. I know you meant no harm and remain your close friend.
   Gobnait

   Day Five

   Nuala,
   Your generosity knows no bounds. Five gold rings! When the parcel arrived I was scared stiff that it might be more birds, because the smell in the living-room is atrocious. However, I don’t want to seem ungrateful for the beautiful rings.
   Your affectionate friend,
   Gobnait

   Day Six

   Nuala,
   What are you trying to do to us? It isn’t that we don’t appreciate your generosity but the six geese have not alone nearly murdered the calling birds but they laid their eggs on top of the vet’s head from the pear-tree and his bill was £68 in cash ! My mother is munching 60 grains of Valium a day and talking to herself in a most alarming way. You must keep your feelings for me in check.
   Gobnait

   Day Seven

   Nuala,
   We are not amused by your little joke. Seven swans-a-swimming is a most romantic idea but not in the bath of a private house. We cannot use the bathroom now because they’ve gone completely savage and rush the door every time we try to enter. If things go on this way, the mother and I will smell as bad as the living-room carpet. Please lay off. It is not fair.
   Gobnait

   Day Eight

   Nuala,
   Who the hell do you think gave you the right to send eight, hefty maids-a-milking here, to eat us out of house and home? Their cattle are all over the front lawn and have trampled the hell out of the mother’s rose-beds. The swans invaded the living-room in a sneak attack and the ensuing battle between them and the calling birds, turtle doves, French hens and partridge make the Battle of the Somme seem like Wanderly Wagon. The mother is on a bottle of whiskey a day, as well as the sixty grains of Valium. I’m very annoyed with you.
   Gobnait

   Day Nine

   Listen you louser!
   There’s enough pandemonium in this place night and day without nine drummers drumming, while the eight flaming maids-a-milking are beating my poor, old alcoholic mother out of her own kitchen and gobbling everything in sight. I’m warning you, you’re making an enemy of me.
   Gobnait

   Day Ten

   Listen manure-face,
   I hope you’ll be haunted by the strains of ten pipers piping which you sent to torment us last night. They were aided in their evil work by those maniac drummers and it wasn’t a pleasant sight to look out the window and see eight hefty maids-a-milking pogo-ing around with the ensuing punk-rock uproar. My mother has just finished her third bottle of whiskey, on top of a hundred and twenty four grains of Valium. You’ll get yours!
   Gobnait O’Lúnasa

   Day Eleven

   You have scandalised my mother, you dirty Jezebel,
   It was bad enough to have eight maids-a-milking dancing to punk music on the front lawn but they’ve now been joined by your friends ~ the eleven Lords-a-leaping and the antics of the whole lot of them would leave the most decadent days of the Roman Empire looking like “Outlook”. I’ll get you yet, you old bag !

   Day Twelve

   Listen, slurry head,
   You have ruined our lives. The twelve maidens dancing turned up last night and beat the living daylights out of the eight maids-a-milking, ‘cos they found them carrying on with the eleven Lords-a-leaping. Meanwhile, the swans got out of the living-room, where they’d been hiding since the big battle, and savaged hell out of the Lords and all the Maids. There were eight ambulances here last night, and the local Civil Defence as well. The mother is in a home for the bewildered and I’m sitting here, up to my neck in birds’ droppings, empty whiskey and Valium bottles, birds’ blood and feathers, while the flaming cows eat the leaves off the pear-tree. I’m a broken man.
   Gobnait O’Lúnasa
9. 

   hy80 said, 6 months ago

   http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/music/12days.asp
10. 

    Hunter7 said, 6 months ago

    @Neo Blakkrstal

    thank you. I enjoyed that.
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