My Take
By TOM MCKEVITT

We've all heard the Christmas song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and to most it's a delightful nonsense rhyme set to music. But it had a quite serious purpose when it was written. More than just a repetitious melody with pretty phrases and a list of strange gifts, The Twelve Days was a course of learning for Catholic kids in England, when it was unlawful even to be Catholic. That was during the period AD 1558 to 1829, when Parliament finally emancipated Catholics. Given the growth of Irish immigration, English politicians saw the Irish as prospective voters, and wished to vie for their good will. The Irish also happened to be Catholic. It amounted to a sort of quid pro quo, wherein the politicians tacitly said, "I don't approve of your religion but I want your vote," and the Irish may equally tacitly have said, "Just shut up and give us the vote!"

Times were tough back in the early 17th Century for the equally persecuted Protestant Calvinists who protested not persecution by the Catholic Church but by the Church of England, which was separated in the 16th Century from the Church of Rome, by King Henry VIII. Believing themselves oppressed, it was those Calvinists who emigrated to the "New World" in the days of Queen Elizabeth, King James II and Charles I. They became known to history as the Pilgrims. Another persecuted group came to be known as the Quakers, when their leader, George Fox, was tried on trumped up charges and said in protest to the presiding judge, "You will tremble before the Lord!" The Judge then began publicly mocking Fox and his followers, calling them "The Quakers."

Later when King Charles I's popularity rating plummeted, and his reign ended in his untimely demise at the hands of radicals, he was replaced by Oliver Cromwell, "The Great Protector." In his September 1649 "Siege of Drogheda," Ireland, 3,500 Irish were slaughtered, 1,000 of whom were women and Children; according to Cromwell, "To set an example" for any Irish who may have been contemplating a repeat of the 1641 Uprising. Back in England, he allowed Catholics to exist in peace, as long as they behaved, and he proved to be rather liberal in his treatment of a proliferation of new Protestant sects, providing their religious views coincided with his own, singularly Bible based.

Back to The Twelve Days of Christmas, if the authorities knew what the kids were really singing about there would have been the very devil to pay. And that was the point: to keep British authorities in the dark. The song's gifts are hidden meanings of Church teachings; its "true love" doesn't refer to an earthly suitor, but to God Himself. The "me" receiving the presents refers to every baptized person. The "partridge in a pear tree" is Jesus Christ. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge which feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, much in memory of the expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered thee under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but thou wouldst not have it so..."

"Two Turtle Doves" represented the Old and New Testaments. "Three French Hens" were Faith, Hope and Charity, the theological virtues. "Four Calling Birds" were the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists. "Five Golden Rings" were the first Five Books of the Old Testament, i.e. The Pentateuch, which gives a history of man's fall from grace. "Six Geese A'laying" represented the Six Days of Creation. "Seven Swans A'swimming" were the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Seven Sacraments. "Eight Maids A'milking" stood for the Eight Beatitudes. "Nine Ladies Dancing" were the Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit. "Ten Lords A'leaping" were the Ten Commandments. "Eleven Pipers Piping" represented the Eleven 'Faithful' Apostles. Finally, "Twelve Drummers Drumming" were the Twelve Points of Doctrine in the Apostle's Creed.