12 Days of Christmas

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SueBee56

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I would like to know the origin of the Christmas song, “The 12 Days of Christmas” and how it applies to the Catholic Church. Thanks!
 
I’ve heard that the different gifts were meant to symbolize different aspect of the Catholic faith. I got a Christmas card once that had the song lyrics and a message to that effect. The partrige in the pear tree was supposed to represent Jesus on the Cross, the four calling birds- the gospel writers, the lord’s a leapin- the 12 apostles, etc. The card suggested that the song was written to teach the Catholic faith in England where it was illegal to be Catholic at the time. I’m not sure why a coded song would be neccessary because none of the matters of faith the “gifts” are supposed to represent are points of contention between the Catholic and Protestant faiths. Anyway, I think it is a nice way to think of the song. (with the gifts representing tenants of our faith) even if that’s not the way it was originally intended.
 
Allegra said:
I’ve heard that the different gifts were meant to symbolize different aspect of the Catholic faith.
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Fabled but never proven, yet the theoretical “catechism” of the song is interesting nonetheless.

The Wikipedia article cited above discusses this in good detail.
 
Thank you all, for your information re: “The Twelve Days of Christmas…” A very good non-Catholic friend wanted to know and I shared this information with him. SA(SueBee56). 🙂
 
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