The 12 Days of Christmas: Second Night: Two Turtles Doves

Why twelve days? The simple answer: it is twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany. But there is no clear biblical notation thattells us the magi arrived 12 days after the birth of the Christ child. The ChristianChurch has had a habit of embracing the holy days and signs of the culture inwhich they found themselves. Let us note, for instance, that there are twelve zodiac signs; which I have seenin many Christian churches in Europe (Chartres, Amiens, Vezelay). And I haveheard of a twelve day pagan celebration between the winter solstice and New Year'sday, using the zodiac signs….but I don't know much about that, maybe someoneelse can illuminate. Whatever the origins, the celebration of the twelve days is wide spread,although differently dated and interpreted depending upon where inside Christianity'sspectrum one is standing. As, I'venoted, in the west, the twelve days begin the evening of Christmas Day and endingwith the evening of January 6^th. Certainly this pattern in the westwas well engrained in the Church in the Middle Ages when the song The TwelveDays of Christmas appeared.

The traditional wisdom is that the song for the twelve daysof Christmas was developed in the Roman Catholic community in England to teachthe faith to the children during the period when it was forbidden to practice thatbranch of Christianity in England (1558-1829).The tradition tells us for instance that the 2 turtle doves, of this thesecond day, represent the sacrifice of a Jewish family like Jesus' at the birthof a son. Or another tradition speaks of the two testaments. There is evidenceof many translations and versions of this song in Europewhich would suggest that use of the song as a teaching device was, at least,not its originating point.

A partridge in a pear tree, two turtle doves, three Frenchhens, four collie birds, five golden rings, six geese a laying, seven swans aswimming, eight maids a milking, nine ladies dancing, ten drummers drumming, elevenpipers piping, twelve lords a leaping.

The framework it offers us is useful. It is an accounting ofthings: the things we would like need, or that annoy us, or define us, perhaps.The framework was been used by Muppets and John Denver, Walt Disney and Winnie-the-Pooh,and the Mackenzie brothers of Second City Fame and on and on.

So how shall we use it this year? You've got twelve days of hoping… what willyou hope for? Who will you hope for?

Or you've got twelve days to lamenting, what will youlament? "On the first day of Christmas my untrue love gave to me, one messed up world?" Perhaps, "onthe eighth day we got a war with eight reasons behind it". Do you rememberthem? Osama Ben laden, weapons of mass destruction, and the last reason,according to Tommy Frank and Donald Rumsfeld, was to protect 'our' oil. Or on the12^th day I got a 12% stock decrease -- if I am lucky!

Perhaps each age and time has to decide how to use thisframework for the image of their time. So let's make our own way through thistime and this song. How would you write it?