{"id":4123,"date":"2015-03-01T14:08:37","date_gmt":"2015-03-01T12:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joke-archives.com\/?p=4123"},"modified":"2015-03-01T14:08:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-01T12:08:37","slug":"the-origin-of-the-12-days-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joke-archives.com\/?p=4123","title":{"rendered":"The Origin of the 12 Days of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>People often think of &#8216;The Twelve Days of Christmas&#8217; as the days preceding the festival. Actually, Christmas is a season of the Christian Year that lasts for the twelve days beginning December 25 and lasting until January 6 &#8211; the Day of Epiphany, when the church celebrates the revelation of Christ as the Light of the world and recalls the journey of the magi. <\/p>\n<p>From 1558 until 1829 Roman Catholics in England were not allowed to practice their faith openly. During that era someone wrote &#8216;The Twelve Days of Christmas&#8217; as a kind of secret catechism that could be sung in public without the risk of persecution.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The 12 Days of Christmas&#8217; is, in essence, an allegory. The song has two levels of interpretation: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of the church.<\/p>\n<p>Each element in the carol is a code word for a religious reality. The &#8220;true love&#8221; represents God and the &#8220;me&#8221; who receives these presents is the Christian (a Catholic in this case). <\/p>\n<p>The hidden meanings are: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ a tree as a gift from God.<\/li>\n<p><LI>The two turtledoves are the Old and New Testaments, another gift from God.<\/li>\n<\/p>\n<p><LI>Three French hens stand for faith, hope and love &#8211; the three gifts of the Spirit that abide (I Corinthians 13).<\/li>\n<\/p>\n<p><LI>The four calling birds are the four Gospels, which sing the song of salvation through Jesus Christ.<\/li>\n<\/p>\n<p><LI>The five gold rings recall the Torah (Law) the first five books of the Old Testament, also called the &#8220;Books of Moses.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/p>\n<p><LI>The six geese a-laying stand for the six days of creation.<\/li>\n<\/p>\n<p><LI>Seven swans a-swimming represent the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit (I Corinthians 12:8-11, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4:10-11).<\/li>\n<\/p>\n<p><LI>The eight maids a-milking are the eight beatitudes.<\/li>\n<\/p>\n<p><LI>Nine ladies dancing? These are the nine fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).<\/li>\n<\/p>\n<p><LI>The ten lords a-leaping are the Ten Commandments.<\/li>\n<\/p>\n<p><LI>Eleven pipers piping stand for the eleven faithful disciples. (Excludes Judas.)<\/li>\n<\/p>\n<p><LI>Twelve drummers drumming symbolize the 12 points of belief in the Apostles&#8217; Creed.<\/li>\n<\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So the next time you hear &#8220;The 12 Days of Christmas,&#8221; consider how this otherwise non-religious-sounding song had its origins in the Christian faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People often think of &#8216;The Twelve Days of Christmas&#8217; as the days preceding the festival. Actually, Christmas is a season of the Christian Year that lasts for the twelve days beginning December 25 and lasting until January 6 &#8211; the Day of Epiphany, when the church celebrates the revelation of Christ as the Light of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[370],"class_list":["post-4123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-season","tag-christmas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joke-archives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joke-archives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joke-archives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joke-archives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joke-archives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.joke-archives.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joke-archives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joke-archives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joke-archives.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}