On the First Day of Christmas - by Anna

     Welcome to TAJ News Blog!! This is Anna, and today I'm going to be covering the origins of the Twelve Days of Christmas. We're going to do a three part series telling the history and origins of some Christmas song. When I choose the Twelve Days of Christmas, I didn't realize how uncertain its origins are!

     It is much debated whether this is a silly children's song with no particular meaning, or a song invented by Christians as a secret way to teach the tenets of the faith. Whether or not the Christians were Catholics living in Anglican England, or some other persecuted group of Christians is also debated.

     So... After reading all the stuff, I have one that I lean towards, but I'm going to cover both objectively before I tell you what I think. Muhahaha. ;)

Secular Children's Song

     It is argued that this song was some sort of a children's game. The leader would've said the first verse; then the second person the first and second verse; the third the first, second and third verse, and so on. 

     The website referenced above says this, which I found interesting:

It is possible that "The Twelve Days of Christmas" has been confused with (or is a transformation of) a song called "A New Dial" (also known as "In Those Twelve Days"), which dates to at least 1625 and assigns religious meanings to each of the twelve days of Christmas

     Now I see how that might be likely... But let me talk about that more in the other option of origin for this song.

Secret Christian Song

     Most of the places I visited leaned towards this interpretation, but I find it a rather random origin for this song. How do 'eight maids a-milking' bring to mind the eight beatitudes?? I find it rather far fetched.

     If you want to read other arguments against it, I'd check out this site. It does a good job of covering both sides of the story, and brings up a lot of stuff against the secret Christian song like what I just mentioned and the fact that none of the stuff implied in the song would be against Anglican faith (assuming it was written in England during the persecution of Catholics).

     Thanks for bearing with me in my long, probably fairly boring, covering of the origins of these songs. If for some reason you did not find this uninteresting, check out the websites referenced. And if you're still desperate, a simple search for 'twelve days of Christmas origins' for a wealth of information.

     Also, check out this parody video of The Twelve Days of Christmas done by Straight No Chaser. Gotta love it!!

     Thanks for reading and come back next week for another Christmas song origin shared (or discussed, like mine)! Tell us in the comments, what's your favorite Christmas song?

~Anna