During the holiday season , " The Twelve day of Christmas " is try everywhere from shopping malls totelevisioncommercials to church building mapping . Everywhere you go , you could hear about Two Turtle Doves , Seven Swans - a - Swimming and Eleven Pipers Piping . But what does any of this mean ? What does a song about dove , hen and cuckoo have to do withChristmas ?
The carol has its root in eighteenth - century England , as amemory - and - forfeitgame sung by British children . In the game , players had to remember all of the old verses and add a new verse at the terminal . Those ineffective to commemorate a verse paid a forfeit , in the manakin of akissor a objet d’art of candy to the others .
One theory , however , connect the carol to the era when Catholicism was outlawed in England , from 1558 and 1829 . Thecarol , it is said , was a catechism song for Catholics to learn " the dogma of their faith , " as they could not openly practice in Anglican society [ origin : Snopes.com ] . While many still maintain the musical theme of a coded hymn to be true , there ’s no substantive grounds that this was the case , nor is there any evidence that the verses hold anything uniquely Catholic .
Here are the poesy of the song , along with their supposed symbolisation :
While these verses are what most of us connect with the " Twelve 24-hour interval of Christmas , " the phrase refers to an actual 12 - day period . The 12 daytime of Christmas , in fact , are the daylight from Dec. 25 , celebrated as thebirth of Jesus Christ , to theEpiphany , observe on Jan. 6 as the day when the manifestation of Christ ’s glory was realized .
While sects of Christianity celebrate the 12 day of Christmas differently , sure ones , such as the Eastern Orthodox Church , consider the Epiphany to be the most important day of the Christmas time of year . Some exchange natural endowment on each of the 12 daytime instead of only on Christmas solar day .
What are some other unique customs sure sects of Christianity have in celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas ? How did these years come into existence ? discover out next .
The Meaning of the 12 Days of Christmas
ChristmasDay is the first of the 12 sidereal day of Christmas . The period is viewed by Christians as the amount of time it took the three magus , or wise men , to travel to Bethlehem for the Epiphany , the revelation of Jesus Christ as the savior and the boy of God ( " epiphany " is from the Greek word for " Revelation of Saint John the Divine " ) .
While there ’s a consensus on what Christmas commemorates , what the Epiphany honour varies between church and cultures . Some churches believe it ’s the sidereal day of Christ ’s baptism , while others lionise it as the day the three magi visited Jesus with gifts .
But there are also differences on when the 12 day are celebrated . westerly church , for good example , celebrate Christmas on the Dec. 25 , the Epiphany on the Jan. 6 , and the period in between as the 12 days and nights of Christmas . Other civilisation , however , have different customs .
Although most in the Eastern Orthodox Church now stand by to the Western calendar , those in the Greek Orthodox Church still employ a different religious calendar , observe Christmas on Jan. 7 , and the Epiphany on Jan. 19 . Some Romance - American cultures fete the Epiphany as Three Billie Jean Moffitt King Day , giving gift on Jan. 6 instead of Christmas . Other cultures will give one gift per mean solar day from Christmas to the Epiphany . This custom has never really caught on in America , where the celebration of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is most common [ seed : Bratcher ] .
The Twelfth Night , often celebrated on the nighttime of Jan. 5 , is debate the ending of the Christmas season , before the Epiphany the next twenty-four hour period . The Twelfth Night was a time for feast in England ( partly breathe in by Shakespeare ’s play of the same name ) in centuries past times . Some cultures , like the Gallic and Spanish , celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany with aking cake , a coffee patty with imperial , green and yellow icing the puck to record the sojourn by the magi to the Christ child . In westerly cultivation , theking cakeis associated withMardi Gras , and the season of Carnival [ source : Burnett ] . Churches also vary in their jubilation of the Epiphany ; some Protestant churches keep it for an full time of year , lasting until the season ofLent , while many Catholics celebrate it as a single day .
But just because the song is associated with the vacation season , that does n’t mean you ca n’t sing it the rest of the year . For more information about all things Christmas , visit the links that trace .
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