The 12 days of Christmas - 4th and 5th day

So, more on the hidden message in the Christmas song, 'The 12 days of Christmas'.

"On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

Four calling birds

Three French hens

Two turtle-doves

And a partridge in a pear tree"

Birds again... and they are 'calling birds', sounds like they are singing out.

The four calling birds refer to the four Evangelist, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the Gospels they wrote. They are the first Four Books in the New Testament.

Gospel according to Matthew writes Jesus as King of the Jews, Mark as a servant, Luke as the Son of Man, and John as the Son of God.

The word 'gospel' originally means 'good news'. Imagine birds singing good news of Jesus, good association.

On the fourth day, the Lord reminds you of:

the Four Gospels

faith, hope and love

the Old Testament and the New Testament

and the Jesus on the cross. 

"On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

Five golden rings

Four calling birds

Three French hens

Two turtle-doves

And a partridge in a pear tree"

Five gold rings! At last, something that is present like!

The five golden ring refers to 'the Pentateuch', the first Five Books of the Old Testament written by Moses - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It is the history of creation of the world and man, to his fall from grace..... reminder from the Lord of the big mistakes people have made over thousands of years.

So, on the fifth day the Lord reminds you of

the Pentateuch,

the Four Gospels

faith, hope and love,

the Old Testament and the New Testament

and the Jesus on the cross.

The reminder list gets heavier each day...

The 12 days of Christmas - 2nd and 3rd day

What is encrypted in "The 12 days of Christmas" 

So, "my true love" is God almighty, and each day after Christmas he sends messages to the Catholics to remind them of the important teachings of their beliefs.

"On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me 

Two turtle-doves

And a partridge in a pear tree."

Two turtle-doves mean the Old Testament and the New Testament, two collection books of religious writings. 

The Old Testament is based on the Hebrew bible, and the number of books contained differ between Christian Churches. The Protestant Church Old Testament contains 39 books whereas the Catholic one contains 46. The second part of the Christian Bible, the New Testament contains 27 books.

And also on the second day, the Lord does not forget to remind you also of Jesus on the cross.

"On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me

Three French hens

Two turtle-doves

And a partridge in a pear tree."

Three French hens refers to "faith, hope and love", the Theological Virtues. It is mentioned in Corinthians 13 : 13 in the New Testament. 

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love

By the way, the lyrics of the school anthem of my old school was exactly the words from Corinthians 13 - "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels..." to "But the greatest of these is love."To me, Corinthians 13 is more a lyrics of the song I used to sing every week at school assemblies than the words of the Bible.

So, on the third day of Christmas, the Lord reminds us of 

faith, hope and love,

and also reminds us again the importance of 

the Old Testament and the New Testament, 

and of Jesus on the cross.

See you next time.

The 12 days of Christmas - an encrypted counting song

Hello. Back blogging again.
Sort of faded off from spring, and through summer and autumn, and now it's Christmas!

So let me blog about one Christmas song that kind of 'haunted' me since childhood, "The 12 days of Christmas".

From Christmas, a person receives a gift from his / her true love every day until Epiphany, and the number of gifts builds up each day. It takes the form of a counting song, but the lyrics never really made sense to me. The gifts that the true love send are genuinely bizarre!

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me
A partridge in a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Four calling birds
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.

And it goes on and on and on. So far this person has received 20 birds:
4 partridges in a pear tree, 6 turtledoves, 6 French hens and 4 calling birds (I like to think that the person receives the new gift with the previous ones all over again, it adds more non-sensical fun to the song). This person or the true love must be infatuated with feathered creatures to receive or send so many, not saying any complaint and keep on singing.

Well, it goes on until the twelfth day, and here is the breakdown of the gifts sent:

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Twelve drummers drumming
Eleven pipers piping
Ten lords a leaping
Nine ladies dancing
Eight maids a milking
Seven swans are swimming
Six geese are laying
Five golden rings
Four calling birds
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.

The troop is fully armed, ready to make havoc on the twelfth night!

Recently I read somewhere that this innocent nonsense song was an encrypted counting song that started and became popular in England in the 18th century among the persecuted Catholics living under the Protestant society. The lyrics have a double meaning that remind the Catholics the important teachings of their belief.

Now, that is something worth digging into, isn't it?

Because Henry VIII split up with the Roman Catholic Church in order to split up his wives (and for some, to cut off their heads), the Catholics could not practice their belief openly, so they taught the Catholic teachings to their young children through this encrypted song.

"My true love gave to me"
Who is the true love in the Catholic context? God almighty.

God sends you messages every day, reminding you of the important doctrines of the Catholic church.



On the first day of Christmas, that's 25th December, you get "a partridge in a pear tree" which is "Jesus on the cross". God reminds you not to forget about Jesus who sacrificed himself to save us from our sins.

More to come tomorrow!