The Twelve Days of Christmas - How Many Presents? » The Twelve Days of Christmas - How Many Presents? The Twelve Days of Christmas - How Many Presents? By Murray Bourne , 16 Dec 2008 A partridge in a pear tree Most people wrongly believe that the '12 Days of Christmas' refers to the days before Christmas. However, it's really the period starting on Christmas day and finishing with the Epiphany (January 6th, when the 3 kings from 'the East' brought gifts). You may be familiar with the Christmas song, The 12 Days of Christmas. The first few lines go like this: 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. On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Three French hens, Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.

The song continues, adding 4 calling birds on the 4th day, 5 golden rings on the 5th, and so on up to the 12th day, when 12 drummers add to the cacophony of assorted birds, pipers and lords leaping all over the place. Notice that on each day there is one partridge (so I will have 12 partridges by the 12th day), and each day from the second day onwards there are 2 doves (so I will have 22 doves), and from the 3rd there are 3 hens (total of 30 hens), and so on. So, how many presents are there altogether?

Partridges: 1 × 12 = 12 Calling birds: 4 × 9 = 36 Golden rings: 5 × 8 = 40 Geese: 6 × 7 = 42 Drummers: 12 × 1 = 12 Total = 364 We observe that we have the same number of partridges as drummers (12 of each); doves and pipers (22 of each); hens and lords (30 of each) and so on. So the easiest way to count our presents is to add up to the middle of the list and then double the result: (12 + 22 + 30 + 36 + 40 + 42) × 2 = 364. Efficiently counting the presents What if we have more than 12 days? How many presents then? Let's now generalize the above result just in case out true love decides to be extraordinarily generous and keeps on giving us gifts - up to 100 days, say.

(Multiplying and adding could get quite tedious.) Mathematically speaking, my true love is giving me 1 + 2 + 3 + ... + n presents on the n-th day after Christmas. The number of presents each day is 1 on the 1st, then 3 on the 2nd, then 6 on the 3rd, then 10 on the 4th. We call this set of numbers the triangular numbers, because they can be drawn in a dot pattern that forms triangles: To get the total number of presents, we need to add those triangular numbers, like this: 1 (on the first day) + 3 (on the 2nd day) + 6 + 10 + ... Another way of writing this is: On the first day, 1 present. On the 2nd day, 1 + 3 = 4 presents On the 3rd day, 1 + 3 + 6 = 10 presents On the 4th day, 1 + 3 + 6 + 10 = 20 presents.

These partial sums are called tetrahedral numbers, because they can be drawn as 3-dimensional triangular pyramids (tetrahedrons) like this: So how many dots (representing presents) will there be in the 12th tetrahedron? Of course, we could just start adding with our calculator, but what if my true love is very generous, and starts giving me presents for 30 days after Christmas? Or for 100 days? How would I calculate it then? Our aim is to produce a formula that will allow us to find any tetrahedral number. Here's one of the possible ways of doing this. Let's take (for example) the sum of the first 4 triangular numbers and represent it as a triangle. Each row in the triangle (on the left, below) adds to a triangular number and the sum of the whole triangle is the sum of the first 4 triangular numbers. Let's now re-arrange the first triangle in 2 different ways, then add the result, in respective positions. (My total is 3 times what I really need. I will divide by 3 later to cater for this).

Notice that by doing this, I get a total of 6 in every position in the result triangle. The answer of "6" is 2 more than the 4 triangular numbers that we are adding. So if we were adding the first 7 triangular numbers, our result in the right triangle would be all 9's; if it was the first n triangular numbers, we would get (n + 2). It's easy to find the sum of the 6's, like this: (1 + 2 + 3 + 4) × 6. The series in brackets is just an arithmetic progression , with first term a = 1, common difference d = 1 and number of terms n = 4.

The formula for the sum to n terms of an arithmetic progression with first term a and common difference d is: Substituting our values, we have: = 2 × 5 = 10 So (1 + 2 + 3 + 4) × 6 = 2(5) × 6 = 60 But remember, this is 3 times what we really want, so the 4th tetrahedral number is 60/3 = 20 In general, for the sum 1 + 2 + 3 + ... + n: which is the same as Multiplying by the (n + 2) that we get from what I called 'the result triangle' earlier: Dividing this by 3 (since we used 3 equivalent sum triangles to get this far) gives us the n-th tetrahedral number: Back to our Christmas song. On the 12th day, the number of presents will be If my true love gave me the presents in this pattern for 30 days, I would have this number of presents: If it was 100 days, I would have this number of presents: Good deal. See the 57 Comments below.

Related posts: 12 Days of Christmas | Christmas Carols by Hooplakidz - YouTube 12 Days of Christmas | Christmas Carols by Hooplakidz Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Dec 15, 2011 Download HooplaKidz Christmas Songs on iTunes Everyone likes to enjoy festivals, so come and sing along to this beautiful 12 Days of Christmas which will be loved by one and all !!! Lyrics to Sing Along :- 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. On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Three French hens, And a partridge in a pear tree. On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Four calling birds, 12 Days of Christmas: Counting by Gifts Dr.

Wilson In the Christmas song, "The 12 Days of Christmas", how many total gifts does her true love give to her? The gifts are: A partridge in a pear tree, Two turtle doves, Christmas Song - 12 Days Of Christmas Lyrics | MetroLyrics 12 Days of Christmas Lyrics New! Highlight lyrics to add Meanings, Special Memories, and Misheard Lyrics... Submit Corrections Cancel 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 On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me: Three French Hens and a Partridge in a Pear Tree On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: Four Calling Birds The Twelve Days of Christmas : snopes.com The Twelve Days of Christmas The Twelve Days of Christmas Was the song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' created as a secret code by persecuted Catholics? - - Claim: The song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was created as a coded reference to important articles of the Christian faith.

FALSE Example: [Collected via e-mail, 1998] You're all familiar with the Christmas song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" I think. To most it's a delightful nonsense rhyme set to music. But it had a quite serious purpose when it was written. It is a good deal more than just a repetitious melody with pretty phrases and a list of strange gifts. Catholics in England during the period 1558 to 1829, when Parliament finally emancipated Catholics in England, were prohibited from ANY practice of their faith by law - private OR public. It was a crime to BE a Catholic. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was written in England as one of the "catechism songs" to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith - a memory aid, when to be caught with anything in writing indicating adherence to the Catholic faith could not only get you imprisoned, it could get you hanged, or shortened by a head - or hanged, drawn and quartered, a rather peculiar and ghastly punishment I'm not aware was ever practiced anywhere else.

Hanging, drawing and quartering involved hanging a person by the neck until they had almost, but not quite, suffocated to death; then the party was taken down from the gallows, and disembowelled while still alive; and while the entrails were still lying on the street, where the executioners stomped all over them, the victim was tied to four large farm horses, and literally torn into five parts - one to each limb and the remaining torso. The songs gifts are hidden meanings to the teachings of the faith. The "true love" mentioned in the song doesn't refer to an earthly suitor, it refers to God Himself. The "me" who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 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..." The other symbols mean the following: 2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments 3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues 4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists 5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.

6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation 7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments 8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes 9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit 10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments 11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles 12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed Origins: Two common forms of modern folklore are claims that familiar old bits of rhyme and song (such as the nursery rhyme " Ring Around the Rosie ") encode "hidden" meanings which have been passed along for centuries, and claims that common objects of secular origin — particularly objects associated with Christmas (such as the candy cane ) — were deliberately created to embody symbols of Christian faith. Here we have an article that combines both these forms and posits that a mirthful Christmas festival song about romantic gift-giving actually originated as a coded catechism used by persecuted Catholics. Some versions of this piece do not specifically mention Catholicism or England.

In these alternate versions, the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is said to have been developed by Christians who could not openly practice their faith because they lived in societies where Christianity was forbidden. Locating a place in the western world where the practice of Christianity was banned during the last several centuries is difficult enough, but trying to discern the usefulness of a Christmas song as a method of preserving tenets of Christianity in a society where the practice of Christianity itself was outlawed is truly a mind bender, since in such a society all facets of Christmas celebrations would surely be banned as well. Therefore, our discussion here will concentrate on the claim that "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was the creation of Catholics living in England after the Anglican Reformation. The history of the development of the Anglican Church and the relationship between Anglicans and Catholics in England over the subsequent centuries is a complex subject which could not be done justice in anything less than a lengthy and detailed discourse. (For an overview of the topic, we recommend the entry on "England [Since the Reformation]" in The Catholic Encyclopedia .) In short, the era under discussion begins with King Henry VIII's break with the Catholic Church in Rome and his establishment of the Anglican Church.

In 1558, Henry's Catholic daughter Mary I died, and her non-Catholic half-sister Elizabeth I took the throne; the following year the Act of Uniformity abolished "the old worship," and the open practice of Catholicism was forbidden by law until Parliament passed the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829. However, it is not accurate to say that, without exception, anyone caught practicing Catholicism (or possessing material indicating adherence to Catholicism) at any time during this 270-year period was immediately imprisoned or executed. The state's toleration of Catholicism waxed and waned with the political exigencies of the times, and during some periods Catholics were treated more leniently than others.

(As an interesting side note, we should mention that during the Puritan Commonwealth of 1649-1660, legislation banning the celebration of Christmas in England by anyone, Anglican or otherwise, was enacted, although these laws were overturned with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.) Two very large red flags indicate that the claim about the "secret" origins of the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is nothing more than a fanciful tale, similar to the many apocryphal "hidden meanings" of various nursery rhymes: There is absolutely no documentation or supporting evidence for this claim whatsoever, other than mere repetition of the claim itself. The claim appears to date only to the 1990s, marking it as likely an invention of modern day speculation rather than historical fact. Moreover, several flaws in the proffered explanation argue compellingly against it: The key flaw in this theory is that the differences between the Anglican and Catholic churches were largely differences in emphasis and form which were extrinsic to scripture.

Although Catholics and Anglicans used different English translations of the Bible (Douai-Reims and the King James version, respectively), all of the religious tenets supposedly preserved by the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (with the possible exception of the number of sacraments) were shared by Catholics and Anglicans alike: Both groups' Bibles included the Old and New Testaments, both contained the five books that form the Pentateuch, both had the Four Gospels, both included God's creation of the universe in six days as described in Genesis, and both enumerated the Ten Commandments. A Catholic might need to be wary of being caught with a Douai-Reims Bible, but there was absolutely no reason why any Catholic would have to hide his knowledge of any of the concepts supposedly symbolized in "The Twelve Days of Christmas," because these were basic articles of faith common to all denominations of Christianity. None of these items would distinguish a Catholic from a Protestant, and therefore none of them needed to be "secretly" encoded into song lest their mention betray one as a Catholic. Conversely, none of the important differences that would obviously distinguish a Catholic from a Protestant is mentioned here.

A Catholic would have good reason not to possess or reveal anything that would indicate his allegiance to the Pope or his participation in the sacrament of penance (also known as Confession), but nothing of that nature is encapsulated in the explanation of the symbolism supposedly to be found in "The Twelve Days of Christmas." If "The Twelve Days of Christmas" were really a song Catholics used "as memory aids to preserve the tenets of their faith" because "to be caught with anything in writing indicating adherence to the Catholic faith could get you imprisoned," how was the essence of Catholicism passed from one generation to the next? The mere memorization of a song with coded references to "the Old and New Testaments" in no way preserves the contents of those testaments. How was this preservation of content accomplished if possessing the testaments in written form was forbidden? Did Catholics memorize the entire contents of the Bible? Obviously not, and there was no reason to do so: Since Catholics and Anglicans both used the Old and New Testaments, possessing their contents in written form did not expose one as a Catholic, and thus there was no need to cloak common Biblical concepts through the use of mnemonic devices.

There was no reason why "young Catholics" could not be openly taught about the Four Gospels, or the eleven faithful apostles, or the Ten Commandments. The utility of a Christmas song as a surreptitious means of memorizing a catechism would be quite limited, as its use would obviously be restricted to Christmastime. How was the supposedly forbidden catechism taught to children throughout the rest of the year? Where are the other rhymes and songs with similar hidden meanings that Catholics would had to have used for their catechism throughout the rest of the year? There are no obvious relationships between the concepts to be memorized and the symbols used to represent them in "The Twelve Days of Christmas." In what way do "eight maids a-milking" remind one of the Eight Beatitudes? How are "nine ladies dancing" supposed to bring the Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit to mind?

(Yes, some interpreters have attempted to explain these relationships, but their explanations are so contrived and convoluted as to be beyond the grasp of the children who were supposed to be the primary beneficiaries of this alleged catechism song.) Without any obvious relationships between the symbols and the concepts they symbolize, this song is no more useful as a "memory aid" than simply memorizing the numbers one through twelve would be. As one would expect to find in a folkloric explanation (rather than a factual one), there is a great deal of variation in the list of religious tenets supposedly symbolized in the song. The three French hens represent the three "theological virtues" (faith, hope, and charity), or the Holy Trinity, or the three gifts the Magi brought for the infant Jesus. The four calling birds are the Four Gospels, or the four major Old Testament prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel), or the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. The five golden rings are the five books of the Pentateuch, or the five decades of the rosary, or the five obligatory sacraments of the Church.

A song genuinely used as a "memory aid" would be expected to have a standard, fixed form, not variation upon variation. What little has been offered in support of this claim is decidedly unconvincing. This piece is often attributed to Fr. Hal Stockert, and in his explanation on a page from the web site of the Catholic Information Network , he wrote: I found this information while I was researching for an entirely unrelated project which required me to go to the Latin texts of the sources pertinent to my research. Among those primary documents there were letters from Irish priests, mostly Jesuits, writing back to the motherhouse at Douai-Rheims, in France, mentioning this purely as an aside, and not at all as part of the main content of the letters. So where is the information gleaned from these letters? As Fr. Stockert explained to syndicated religion writer Terry Mattingly in 1999: "I've got all kinds of people writing me demanding references for my work," he said.

"I wish I could give them what they want, but all of my notes were ruined when our church had a plumbing leak and the basement flooded." Meanwhile, he said, his copy of the original article is on "a computer floppy disk that is so old that nobody has a machine that can read it, anymore." What we do know is that the twelve days of Christmas in the song are the twelve days between the birth of Christ (Christmas, December 25) and the coming of the Magi (Epiphany, January 6). Although the specific origins of the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" are not known, it possibly began as a Twelfth Night "memory-and-forfeits" game in which the leader recited a verse, each of the players repeated the verse, the leader added another verse, and so on until one of the players made a mistake, with the player who erred having to pay a penalty, such as a offering up a kiss or a sweet. This is how the song was presented in its earliest known printed version, in the 1780 children's book Mirth Without Mischief.

(The song is apparently much older than this printed version, but we do not currently know how much older.) Textual evidence indicates that the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was not English in origin, but French. Three French versions of the song are known, and items mentioned in the song itself (the partridge, for example, which was not introduced to England from France until the late 1770s) are indicative of a French origin. It is possible that "The Twelve Days of Christmas" has been confused with (or is a transformation of) a song called "A New Dial" (also known as "In Those Twelve Days"), which dates to at least 1625 and assigns religious meanings to each of the twelve days of Christmas (but not for the purposes of teaching a catechism). In a manner somewhat similar to the memory-and-forfeits performance of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," the song "A New Dial" was recited in a question-and-answer format: What are they that are but one? We have one God alone In heaven above sits on His throne. What are they which are but two? Two testaments, the old and new, We do acknowledge to be true.

What are they which are but three? Three persons in the Trinity Which make one God in unity. What are they which are but four Four sweet Evangelists there are, Christ's birth, life, death which do declare. What are they which are but five? Five senses, like five kings, maintain In every man a several reign. What are they which are but six? Six days to labor is not wrong, For God himself did work so long. What are they which are but seven? Seven liberal arts hath God sent down With divine skill man's soul to crown. What are they which are but eight? Eight Beatitudes are there given Use them right and go to heaven. What are they which are but nine? Nine Muses, like the heaven's nine spheres, With sacred tunes entice our ears. What are they which are but ten? Ten statutes God to Moses gave Which, kept or broke, do spill or save. What are they which are but eleven? Eleven thousand virgins did partake And suffered death for Jesus' sake. What are they which are but twelve? Twelve are attending on God's son; Twelve make our creed. The Dial's done.

(Using ordinary objects to represent biblical concepts is a common device, as exemplified by the several popular recordings of Deck of Cards .) "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is what most people take it to be: a secular song that celebrates the Christmas season with imagery of gifts and dancing and music. Some misinterpretations have crept into the English version over the years, though. For example, the fourth day's gift is four "colly birds" (or "collie birds"), not four "calling birds." (The word "colly" literally means "black as coal," and thus "colly birds" would be blackbirds.) The "five golden rings" refers not to five pieces of jewelry, but to five ring-necked birds (such as pheasants). When these errors are corrected, the pattern of the first seven gifts' all being types of birds is re-established.

Nonetheless, plenty of writers continue to expound upon "the beauty and truly biblical and spiritual meanings locked away in this wonderful song that puts Christ into Christmas where he doesn't appear to be." Perhaps those who consider this tale to be "beautiful" and "inspirational" (despite its obviously dubious truthfulness) should consider its underlying message: That one group of Jesus' followers had to hide their beliefs in order to avoid being tortured and killed by another group of Jesus' followers. Of all the aspects of Christianity to celebrate at Christmastime, that doesn't sound like a particularly good one to emphasize. Last updated: 23 December 2015 Sources: '12 days of Christmas' items cost Kai Wiechmann | Getty Images Lords a-leaping, is the U.S. economy slow to recover! The cost of 10 lords a-leaping increased 3 percent over last year, but nine of the other gifts listed in the carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" stayed the same price as last year, according to the 32nd annual PNC Wealth Management Christmas Price Index released Monday. The index is a whimsical way the Pittsburgh-based bank tracks inflation.

The set of gifts spelled out in the final verse of the song would cost $34,131 this year, or 0.6 percent more than the adjusted 2014 price of $33,933. PNC decided to adjust the historic prices of turtle doves and swans after realizing the prices quoted by vendors didn't reflect the birds' overall value on the open market over the years. ‹ ECB announces Christmas break for QE › "The headline, I think, is that inflation in this economy, with the sort of tepid recovery we've seen, is almost nonexistent," said Jim Dunigan, chief investment officer of PNC's asset management group. While the good news is that the price of consumer goods isn't rising very much, it also means demand for those goods is down, at least partly due to wage stagnation. The government's Consumer Price Index has pegged inflation at about 0.2 percent, Dunigan said. The only other items to increase in price since last year were a partridge in a pear tree and two turtle doves.

The bird in the bush rose 3.5 percent overall, mostly because partridges now cost $25 each, up from $20, because partridges are increasingly popular as gourmet food. Pear trees inched up from $188 to just under $190. show chapters 12 Things You Might Not Know About "The Twelve Days of Christmas" | Mental Floss 12 Things You Might Not Know About "The Twelve Days of Christmas" Thinkstock Like us on Facebook Pipers piping? Geese-a-laying? Five goool-den rings? What in the name of yule logs is this song all about? The short answer, it turns out, is that many people have asked that question, and there are nearly as many answers. Here are twelve to get you going. 1. Lots of people, particularly online, insist the song is Catholic catechism. The story goes that from the 16th to the 19th century, when being a Catholic was a crime in Protestant England, children would sing this song to profess their forbidden faith.

The partridge and the pear tree was Jesus Christ, the four calling birds were the four gospels, the pipers piping were the eleven faithful apostles, and so on. 2. But that’s probably not true. For one thing, it doesn’t fit the bill as a catechism song. All 12 things it professes to secretly represent—the books of the Bible, the six days of creation, etc.—would have been acceptable to Protestants as well. For another thing, this rumor seems to have popped up in the last 25 years, and then spread like wildfire, as such things do, on the interwebs, without reference to any original sources. 3. The precise origin of the song is unknown. But scholars on the subject (and yes, there are scholars on the subject!) agree that it was first published either as a children’s song or a Christmas carol in the late 18th or mid-19th century.

Edward Phinney, a professor of classics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, put the first publication at 1868, but it also shows up, in slightly altered forms, in Mirth without Mischief, which was published around 1780, and James Orchard Halliwell’s The Nursery Rhymes of England, which was published in 1842. 4. They weren't always "four calling birds." The “four calling birds” that we sing about today were, at different times, “four canary birds” and “four mockingbirds,” and before that they show up as “colly birds” or “collie birds,” which is the archaic term for blackbirds. There were however, for some reason, always four of them. 5. And "5 golden rings" probably don't refer to what you think they refer to. There’s pretty good evidence suggesting "five golden rings" is actually a reference to the yellowish rings around a pheasant’s neck or to “goldspinks,” an old name for a pretty little bird called the Goldfinch—not to the hand jewelry.

And that actually makes sense, considering every other lyric in the first seven days of the song references a bird: a partridge, turtle doves, French hens (or “fat ducks,” depending on the version), calling birds (or black birds), swans and geese. 6. About that partridge ... Another rather credible origin story concerns the partridge himself. Some evidence suggests that the lyric, “partridge in a pear tree,” is actually an Anglicization of what would have begun as a French word for partridge: perdrix. The original line would have been “a partridge, une perdrix,” which, when you say it out loud, sounds a whole heck of a lot like “a partridge in a pear tree.” 7. There are more renditions and parodies of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” than probably any other Christmas carol out there. Over the years, the song has been done and re-done by everyone from the Chipmunks, Winnie the Pooh ("a hunny pot inna hollow tree!”) and Ren and Stimpy, to Lucille Ball and Ol' Blue Eyes himself.

In Sinatra’s version, he replaces the traditional gifts of birds with things he’d like: "Five ivory combs, Four mission lights, Three golf clubs, Two silken scarfs, and a most lovely lavender tie." In a version by Bob Rivers, a Seattle radio personality, he replaces each “gift” with one of the inconveniences of Christmastime: "sending Christmas cards," "facing my in-laws," and, course, "finding a Christmas tree.” 8. The song might have started as a kids' game. Lots of people who’ve looked into the subject, including Phinney, the Amherst professor, say the song probably arose as a kids’ memory and counting game, wherein groups of children would take turns singing each lyric around in a circle. If a kid messed up, he was “out,” and the game continued. In some retellings, the game worked a little more like Spin the Bottle: if a kid messed up, he owed someone a kiss (the musical version of mistletoe!).

In either case, the goal was to count all the way up to 12 and back down without stumbling, forgetting a lyric, or getting your tongue twisted up on any of the sinuous bits, like “seven swans a-swimming.” 9. Speaking of counting, and fowls ... Every December, a group of birders, amateur and otherwise, venture out in the frigid countryside and count birds in the weeks surrounding Christmas. The so-called “Christmas Bird Count” came about in 1900, when conservationist, bird-lover and early Audubon-ista Frank Chapman convinced a handful of people to stop hunting birds on Christmas, and to start counting them instead. In 1900, 27 groups of “Christmas Bird Counters” traversed the countryside from New England to California. Nowadays, upward of 2000 groups, with tens of thousands of participants total, continue the tradition, making it the longest running and most valuable citizen census of existing bird populations in America today. 10. But back to the song! It's probably a love song.

“If you think of all the things being presented, they’re all gifts from a lover to a woman,” Phinney told The Southeast Missourian in 1990. “Some of them are rather impossible to give, like eight maids a-milking and nine ladies dancing. All those ladies and dancing and pipers and drums imply this is a wedding.” In a 2009 episode of the American version of The Office, Andy Bernard, who is Erin’s office Secret Santa, gives her each item on the “Twelve Days of Christmas” list in an attempt to woo her. At some point, Erin, flummoxed by the influx of large fowl at her desk, beseeches her Secret Santa to please stop, due to injuries caused by the wild animals. At the end, Andy admits he has been giving the poorly conceived gifts—just as a cacophonous parade of 12 drummers enters the set. 11. And what’s a wedding without consummation? Phinney says the song is rife with references to fertility (maids a-milking, lords a-leapin’, geese a-laying, if you know what I mean).

The final gift—the partridge in a pear tree—is the ultimate lover’s offer, Phinney says. The pear is heart-shaped, and “the partridge is a famous aphrodisiac.” 12. All these gifts would cost a pretty penny. Every year since 1984, a group of economists at PNC Wealth Management have figured out how much it would cost to actually buy all the things on the “Twelve Days of Christmas” list. The so-called Christmas Price Index indicates inflation and the increasing costs of certain goods. This year, for instance, if you were really going to buy everything on that list—which includes hiring drummers and dancers (per performance) and milking maids (per hour), and, presumably, a group of men who are willing to leap for pay—it would run you $114,651.17. Compare that to 1990, when you could get away with the whole shooting match for a cool $15,231.70.

At today’s prices, a performance of twelve drummers drumming would set you back an average of $2,854.50, while seven swans will run you a whopping $7,000. Key to the Twelve Days of Christmas - Crossroads Initiative Key to the Twelve Days of Christmas Home > Media > Articles > Key to the Twelve Days of Christmas Partridge in a pear tree Jesus Christ, symbolized as a mother partridge that feigns injury to decoy predators from helpless nestlings.

Two turtle doves Old & New Testaments Three French Hens Faith, hope, charity Four Calling birds The Four Gospels Five Golden Rings The Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy) Six geese a laying Six days of creation Seven Swans a swimming 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit Eight maids a-milking 8 Beatitudes Nine Ladies Dancing Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit Ten Lords a-leaping 10 Commandments Eleven pipers piping The 11 faithful disciples 12 drummers drumming 12 articles of the Apostles Creed The “Twelve Days of Christmas” refer to the eight days of the Christmas Octave from December 25 to New Years Day, and the four additional days up to and including the eve of January 6, the traditional date of the Epiphany. In the USA and many other countries, Epiphany is now celebrated on the first Sunday after New Years, so the exact number 12 does not necessarily apply. But the point is, don’t throw out the tree on the 26th–the birth of the Savior can’t be celebrated adequately in one day.

Let the celebration continue through at least through the Feast of the Epiphany–if not through the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. According to the Handbook of Catholic Sacramentals by Ann Ball, the famous song about the 12 Days of Christmas was written in England as a catechism song for young Catholics in the days when it was illegal to practice or teach the Catholic Faith. It contains hidden meanings intended to help children remember lessons of faith. Instead of referring to an earthly suitor, the “true love” mentioned in the song really refers to God. The “me” who receives the presents is symbolic of every baptized person. There appears to be no conclusive historical evidence to prove this origin of the song, Nevertheless, the traditional association between the gifts mentioned in the song and various spiritual gifts is a fun way to turn a seemingly secular Christmas carol into a valuable catechetical tool. So let’s have fun with it! Be a part of the “new springtime” of evangelization! Your tax-deductible gift helps us use TV, radio, and the web to proclaim the message without compromise but in language even the young can understand. Click here to donate now.

The Twelve Days of Christmas Lyrics The Twelve Days of Christmas 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: 2 Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a Pear Tree On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me: 3 French Hens and a Partridge in a Pear Tree On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: 4 Calling Birds The History of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' :: Catholic News Agency Home » Resources » Advent » Customs and Traditions The History of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' The song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is an English Christmas carol. From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of the Church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

To fit the number scheme, when you reach number 9, representing the Fruits of the Holy Ghost, the originator combined 6 to make 3, taking the 6 fruits that were similar: the fruit in each parenthesis is the that was not named separately. There are actually Twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost. The "True Love" one hears in the song is not a smitten boy or girlfriend but Jesus Christ, because truly Love was born on Christmas Day. The partridge in the pear tree also represents Him because that bird is willing to sacrifice its life if necessary to protect its young by feigning injury to draw away predators.

Question: What tree is mentioned in the Christmas song 'Twelve Days of Christmas'?
Answer: Pear Tree