It's Official ! It's Here !

It is now officially December. The radio has been playing Christmas music since Halloween. Retailers started to display decorations in August, right next to Back to School signs. Sigh.

Since I have the radio playing at work, one song I hear frequently is the Twelve Days of Christmas. (I personally like Perry Como's version) Here is a bit of truthful trivia to keep some small part of the spirit of the season alive:

It was illegal to be a Catholic in England from 1558 to 1829, so this was written as a catechism song to help young Catholics learn the basics of their faith. Since it sounded like rhyming nonsense, Catholics could sing it without fear of imprisonment. The song had hidden meanings; "true love" refers to God and "me" refers to the church. The twelve gifts also had their meanings. On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me twelve drummers drumming (the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostles’ Creed), eleven pipers piping (the eleven faithful apostles), ten lords a-leaping (the ten commandments), nine ladies dancing (the nine fruits of the Spirit), eight maids a-milking (the eight beatitudes), seven swans a-swimming (the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments), six geese a-laying (the six days of creation), five golden rings (the first five books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch"), four calling birds (the four Gospels, the four evangelists), three French hens (faith, hope and charity), two turtle doves (the Old and New Testaments) and a partridge in a pear tree (Jesus Christ, symbolically presented as a mother partridge that acts as a decoy to save her helpless chicks from predators).