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The now-standard melody for the carol was popularised by the English baritone and composer Frederic Austin. Snopes.com, a website reviewing urban legends, Internet rumours, e-mail forwards, and other stories of unknown or questionable origin, concludes that the hypothesis of the twelve gifts of Christmas being a surreptitious Catholic catechism is incorrect. The possibility that the twelve gifts were used as a catechism during the period of Catholic repression was also hypothesised in this same time period (1987 and 1992) by Fr. Hal Stockert wrote an article (subsequently posted online, in 1995) in which he suggested a similar possible use of the twelve gifts as part of a catechism. Others suggest the gold rings refer to “five goldspinks”—a goldspink being an old name for a goldfinch; or even canaries.a However, the 1780 publication includes an illustration that clearly depicts the “five gold rings” as being jewellery. Shahn suggests that “the five golden rings refer to the ringed pheasant”.
The song enumerates a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas, starting on Christmas Day and ending on the Epiphany (January 6th). On the fourth day of Christmas,my true love sent to me Four calling birds,Three French hens,Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree. On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to meLe premier jour de Noël mon grand amour m’a envoyéA partridge in a pear treeUne perdrix dans un poirier Assuming the gifts are repeated in full in each round of the song, the persona’s true love sends her a total of 364 items by the twelfth day.
The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)
Peter Kennedy recorded the Copper family of Sussex, England singing a version in 1955 which differs slightly from the common version, whilst Helen Hartness Flanders recorded several different versions in the 1930s and 40s in New England, where the song seems to have been particularly popular. Several folklorists have recorded the carol using traditional melodies. A melody, possibly related to the “traditional” melody on which Austin based his arrangement, was recorded in Providence, Rhode Island in 1870 and published in 1905.Cecil Sharp’s Folk Songs from Somerset (1905) contains two different melodies for the song, both distinct from the now-standard melody.
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- The index has been humorously criticised for not accurately reflecting the true cost of the gifts featured in the Christmas carol.
- A similar cumulative verse from Scotland, “The Yule Days”, has been likened to “The Twelve Days of Christmas” in the scholarly literature.
- On the eleventh day of Christmas,my true love sent to me Eleven pipers piping,Ten lords a-leaping,Nine ladies dancing,Eight maids a-milking,Seven swans a-swimming,Six geese a-laying,Five golden rings,Four calling birds,Three French hens,Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.
- The latter is the cumulative cost of all the gifts with the repetitions listed in the song.
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- William and Ceil Baring-Gould reiterate this idea, which implies that the gifts for the first seven days are all birds.
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“On the” is found in that bar on the fourth (pickup) beat for the next verse. The time signature of this song is not constant, unlike most popular music. This is a traditional English singing game but the melody of five gold rings was added by Richard sic Austin whose fine setting (Novello) should be consulted for a fuller accompaniment. https://pin-up-download.in/ A number of later publications state that Austin’s music for “five gold rings” is an original addition to an otherwise traditional melody. A Times review from 1906 praised the “quaint folk-song”, while noting that “the words … are better known than the excellent if intricate tune”.
William and Ceil Baring-Gould also suggest that the birds are Breton hens, which they see as another indication that the carol is of French origin. William B. Sandys refers to it as a “convivial glee introduced a few years since, ‘A Pie i.e., a magpie sat on a Pear Tree,’ where one drinks while the others sing.” The image of the bird in the pear tree also appears in lines from a children’s counting rhyme an old Mother Goose. Another suggestion is that an old English drinking song may have furnished the idea for the first gift.
What are the lyrics to ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’?
William and Ceil Baring-Gould reiterate this idea, which implies that the gifts for the first seven days are all birds. The fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me five hares running, four ducks quacking, three fat hens, two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree; The fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me four ducks quacking, three fat hens, two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree; The third day of Christmas my true love sent to me three fat hens, two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree; The second day of Christmas my true love sent to me two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree; The first day of Christmas my true love sent to me a partridge and a pear-tree;
On the sixth day of ChristmasMy true love gave to meSix geese a-laying,Five golden rings,Four calling birds,Three French hens,Two turtle dovesAnd a partridge in a pear tree. On the fifth day of ChristmasMy true love gave to meFive golden rings,Four calling birds,Three French hens,Two turtle dovesAnd a partridge in a pear tree. On the twelfth day of Christmas,my true love sent to me Twelve drummers drumming,Eleven pipers piping,Ten lords a-leaping,Nine ladies dancing,Eight maids a-milking,Seven swans a-swimming,Six geese a-laying,Five golden rings,Four calling birds,Three French hens,Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree! On the eleventh day of Christmas,my true love sent to me Eleven pipers piping,Ten lords a-leaping,Nine ladies dancing,Eight maids a-milking,Seven swans a-swimming,Six geese a-laying,Five golden rings,Four calling birds,Three French hens,Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree. On the tenth day of Christmas,my true love sent to me Ten lords a-leaping,Nine ladies dancing,Eight maids a-milking,Seven swans a-swimming,Six geese a-laying,Five golden rings,Four calling birds,Three French hens,Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree. On the ninth day of Christmas,my true love sent to me Nine ladies dancing,Eight maids a-milking,Seven swans a-swimming,Six geese a-laying,Five golden rings,Four calling birds,Three French hens,Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.
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- On the ninth day of Christmas,my true love sent to me Nine ladies dancing,Eight maids a-milking,Seven swans a-swimming,Six geese a-laying,Five golden rings,Four calling birds,Three French hens,Two turtle doves, And a partridge in a pear tree.
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- A classic example of a cumulative song, the lyrics detail a series of increasingly numerous gifts given to the speaker by their “true love” on each of the twelve days of Christmas (the twelve days that make up the Christmas season, starting with Christmas Day).
- The song is typically performed in a cumulative format, meaning each verse is built on top of the previous ones, increasing the number of gifts with each day.
- William B. Sandys refers to it as a “convivial glee introduced a few years since, ‘A Pie i.e., a magpie sat on a Pear Tree,’ where one drinks while the others sing.” The image of the bird in the pear tree also appears in lines from a children’s counting rhyme an old Mother Goose.
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This has not been copied by later versions, which simply repeat the melody from the earlier verses. However, the melody for “four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves” changes from this point, differing from the way these lines were sung in the opening four verses. The second to fourth verses’ melody is different from that of the fifth to twelfth verses.
It has also been suggested that this carol is connected to the “old ballad” which Sir Toby Belch begins to sing in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Some authors suggest a connection to a religious verse entitled “Twelfth Day”, found in a thirteenth century manuscript at Trinity College, Cambridge; this theory is criticised as “erroneous” by Yoffie. Husk, in the 1864 excerpt quoted below, stated that the carol was “found on broadsides printed at Newcastle at various periods during the last hundred and fifty years”, i.e. from approximately 1714. There is evidence pointing to the North of England, specifically the area around Newcastle upon Tyne, as the origin of the carol. The kinds of gifts vary in a number of the versions, some of them becoming alliterative tongue-twisters.
Halliwell, writing in 1842, stated that “each child in succession repeats the gifts of the day, and forfeits for each mistake.” In the northern counties of England, the song was often called the “Ten Days of Christmas”, as there were only ten gifts. “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is a cumulative song, meaning that each verse is built on top of the previous verses.
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The twelve days in the song are the twelve days starting with Christmas Eve to the day before Epiphany (which occurs on 6 January). It has thirteen days rather than twelve, and the number of gifts does not increase in the manner of “The Twelve Days”. Each verse deals with the next day of Christmastide, adding one new gift and then repeating all the earlier gifts, so that each verse is one line longer than its predecessor. He oversees the Project Management Office, IT and the configuration team.