The Twelve Days of Christmas

The Twelve Days of Christmas

This English Christmas carol is a cumulative song, each verse building on the one before. The twelve days start on Christmas Day and finish on 5^th January. January 6^th marks Epiphany, the day the three Magi arrived in Bethlehem to worship the baby Jesus.

There are variations to the lyrics, but the following version from 1909 is familiar to many. It begins:

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me

A partridge in a pear tree.

 

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me

Two turtle doves

And a partridge in a pear tree.

It continues, adding one more gift until on the twelfth day the list is complete:

On the twelfth day of Christmas

My true love sent to me

Twelve drummers drumming,

Eleven pipers piping,

Ten lords a-leaping,

Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a-milking,

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five gold rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves

And a partridge in a pear tree.

It is not known how the song originated but it is likely to have sprung from a memory game for children, in the same vein as ‘This is the house that Jack built’. The earliest publication of the words was in a children’s book, ‘Mirth Without Mischief’ in 1780.

It was then a chant, but in 1909 the English composer and singer Frederic Austin (1872 – 1952) adapted a folk melody to fit the words and this is the tune that is sung today.

There is a splendid version on YouTube which I attempted unsuccessfully to download . You can find it here  My father played the organ and always said that playing the foot pedals was like dancing and there are many shots of the organist, William Elliott,  doing just that.

John Julius Norwich wrote an alternative version of the carol. It imagines the correspondence between 'my true love' and the recipient.

On the first day of Christmas, Emily, the recipient, is touched and overwhelmed with love.

By the sixth day she is becoming exasperated and rather less effusive in her affection.

On the tenth day she has reached the end of her tether, and Edward, her true love, is now persona non grata. He does not take the hint, persisting in his efforts to please her.

Finally, Emily makes it plain that Edward is never to darken her doorstep again.

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley.

ABC Wednesday X X X

The only Xs in my garden are the two little Xmas trees that I bought last Christmas and put outside after Epiphany. We always observe the tradition of Twelfth Night and put away all Christmas decorations on that day.

You can see the tiny cones on the little tree

Anyway, the trees survived and thrived but I could only bring one indoors because the other had been ‘leant on’ by a hanging basket and displayed brown needles where there should have been green. It will recover in time for Christmas 2012 I’m (almost) sure.

The one I brought indoors is decorated with buttons of glass and brass and the red ribbons and bells that adorn the necks of Lindt rabbits, reindeer and Santa Clauseseseses. 

There are one or two small wooden ornaments, too. 

The white and silver gauze trimmings and ‘pearls’ from Christmas crackers make tiny baubles and the whole is lit with battery-operated strings of small lights. 

I took the photos so they’re not very good. The busyness of Christmas has left me strangely ill-coordinated and eyes, brain and hands are not working in synchronicity, it seems J

I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas/holiday season and are looking forward to New Year’s Eve. I wish you a Peaceful, Prosperous, Happy, Healthy and Fulfilling 2012J

To see more Xs please click here.

Twelfth Night - The Feast of the Epiphany

Christmas tree in our hotel room on New Year's Eve

Twelfth Night marks the final day of Christmas celebrations and is the day on which all Christmas decorations should be taken down. It is said to be bad luck to leave them up after this time!

It is still an important part of the Christmas holiday in some parts of Europe. Spanish children leave out their shoes, hoping the Wise Men will fill them with presents as they pass by.

Meanwhile, Italian children hope that an old woman called Befana will leave a present for them. Legend has it that Befana lived in Bethlehem when Jesus was born. The shepherds told her about the baby’s birth but Befana was too busy to visit. By the time she had finished her chores and travelled to the stable, the little family had departed. Since then Befana has wandered the world, searching for the baby and leaving a gift at every house in case he is there.

It used to be a tradition in England to bake a Twelfth Night cake containing a single bean. Whoever found the bean in their slice of cake became the Bean King or Queen for the day and could choose a partner to help them reign over the celebrations.

The Feast of the Epiphany is the day when the Christian church marks the arrival of the three Wise Men at the stable in Bethlehem. Many British children are doubtless quite confused by this as most school Nativity plays show the Wise Men (or Kings) coming to see the baby Jesus at the same time as the shepherds.

The three gifts presented to the baby were gold, as a representation of royalty, Frankincense as a symbol of God and Myrrh to signify suffering.

Twelfth Night or What You Will

In our garden

Twelfth Night, 6^th January, marks the Feast of the Epiphany. The Christian church celebrates the arrival of the Wise Men in Bethlehem who had followed the bright star in the east to bring gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby in the manger.

It is thought unlucky to leave decorations in place after the Twelfth Day of Christmas. Accordingly, though I am not superstitious, I always ensure that all seasonal ornaments are removed and put away. ('Putting away' means that the components are placed in a box and left on the landing beneath the loft, occasionally usually for an entire year!) By the time January 6^th dawns I am more than a little tired of seeing bright cards, decorated greenery, coloured lights and angel chimes and simply want to bring some order normality back into our lives. 'Order' is entirely the wrong noun to use in connection with us!

It is ironic that as we reach the end of the festive season and take one last look at cards depicting robins in wintery scenes and snowmen sporting woolly scarves and hats in deep snow which we did not experience here in the South that now snow is falling! It started yesterday around 6:00 pm and continued throughout the night. It has carried on today and the sky still looks full of it. Schools across our county and neighbouring counties have not opened and the roads are strangely quiet apart from children relishing an extra holiday and discovering how deep the snow fall is. It is approaching 30 centimetres (12 inches or 1 foot)

Now it may seem strange that everything grinds to a halt when bad weather strikes. It is not entirely unheard of for snow to fall in winter, particularly in the northerly parts of these islands. However, the roads cannot be salted if stocks are not readily available. There are only three salt 'mines' in the country so replenishing supplies can involve drivers travelling for several hours to their nearest depot to fill their gritting trucks. Once there they face a wait of six hours or so as the queue is long and then they make a return journey of many more hours. Meanwhile council spokesmen speak in interviews of being 'let down' by their suppliers though they acknowledge that the contractors are doing their best to satisfy everyone's requirements. Why are there only three salt dumps? It seems that contractors and local councils could not agree a price for providing more storage sites which begs the question of what our local councils actually do for their money. No doubt many of our councillors are worthy souls, working hard for the good of the community. The leader of our council earns is paid approximately the same amount as President Barack Obama. Mr Obama represents or answers to over 303 million people from widely differing locations and with complex and sometimes seemingly insurmountable problems and requirements. Our local council serves around 160,000 people in a largely affluent area where employment is high and poverty and crime, though present, very low. Local councils are not responsible for supplying gas, electricity, water or sewage. The services they administer include police, fire, educational institutes, refuse collection, social housing, parks and open spaces and libraries.

Furthermore, 20% of the local council taxes we are obliged to pay go into the pension fund for these civil servants. The councillors may choose to retire on full index-linked pension at the age of 50, ten to fifteen years before the normal retirement age. So, I ponder again what these folks do. I just looked on the website and there is no contact email for 'snow clearance on roads' – that figures!

Happy New Year!

There's a pond under there! Last night Gus practised a little ice-skating out there. I just hope our fish are surviving but the pond has plenty of deep water for them to swim in and there are air holes - I think!