This article was first published in the January 2021 edition of our parish magazine.
How often have we heard grumbles that Christmas seems to start earlier and earlier every year – and usually around September! As a musician, planning music for concerts and services for the festive season starts during the summer break, and rehearsals usually in October. As a primary school teacher, rehearsals for the Christmas nativity plays started as soon as school returned from the autumn half term break. It takes time to get ready. As a BBC Radio 4 listener, in November 2020 I heard an interview with a supermarket manager who explained that Christmas goods are stocked from September not with the expectation of selling them, but to lodge the idea in the back of shoppers’ minds, so that when the time came, they would know where to go to buy their supplies.
2020 was a tough year for retail businesses – apart from the major supermarkets and Amazon! Many small independent traders had Advent sales, trying to drum up business before Christmas. Understandable, but not really in keeping with the spirit of Advent. One online company had – during Advent – a “12 Days of Christmas” daily sale of treats. I have even seen “Advent Calendars” with 31 days. Reader, that’s not an Advent calendar! It’s a regular calendar for any month with 31 days. The litany of commercial misunderstandings, deliberate or unintentional, of when the Christmas season actually starts goes on at length.
Christmas begins on Christmas Day. The four weeks prior are Advent. The first day of the Christmas season is Christmas Day, and it only lasts for twelve days. After that we’re in Epiphany.
Back to those precious 12 days. One of my annual Christmas highlights is singing with the Manchester Chorale in the Bridgewater Hall on Christmas Eve afternoon. It’s a “singalong” concert of Christmas songs and carols, and always includes the Twelve Days of Christmas. The audience is sectioned into 12 groups, and each given an action to do on “their” day in the song. We on stage have to do all of them. It’s riotously good fun.
But what’s it all about? As a list of gifts to send to one’s true love, it’s all a bit random, and in many cases would be wholly unwelcome (I refer you to the correspondence poem by John Julius Norwich).
For our parish blog this year I did a little research into the theology and symbolism of the gifts, and offer here a summary of my findings:
Day 1 – a partridge in a pear tree: Jesus Christ, God’s gift to us. Worth noting that the mother partridge is the only bird that will die for her young.
Day 2 – 2 turtle doves: the two Testaments of our Bible.
Day 3 – 3 French hens: these represent faith, hope and love, written about by St Paul in 1 Corinthians 13.
Day 4 – 4 calling birds: the four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Like and John.
Day 5 – 5 gold rings: the first five books of the Old Testament, also known as the Torah.
Day 6 – 6 geese a-laying: the 6 eggs represent each of the 6 days of creation in the book of Genesis.
Day 7 – 7 swans a-swimming: these are for the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit – prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, and compassion.
Day 8 – 8 maids a-milking: the maids represent the Beatitudes. Milking cows by hand is tough work, done by the lowliest in society. No accident then that milk maids were chosen to represent those who receive Christ’s blessings.
Day 9 – 9 ladies dancing: these are the fruits if the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Day 10 – 10 lords a-leaping: the ten commandments.
Day 11 – 11 pipers piping: the Eleven ‘true’ disciples of Jesus. Judas Iscariot is not included in this number.
Day 12 – 12 drummers drumming: these represent the 12 points of doctrine in the Creed that we say in church every Sunday.
Thus, Twelfth Night is January 5, the night before the Feast of Epiphany on January 6, when we remember the arrival of the Magi.
I leave you with this little Christmas treat: our own Maggie’s Music Makers singing the Twelve Days of Christmas, accompanied as always by Tom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz0It-ZQEFs
Carol P
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 