"The Twelve Days of Christmas"
Annoying Repetitive Ditty or Ancient Secret Christian Code?

It's become fairly well-known in the past several years that "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was originally a "catechism song" used by Catholics in the years 1558-1829 to teach children the tenents of the faith, to avoid persecution by the Church of England.

According to the "legend", "my true love" refers not to an earthly suitor, but to God, and...

• "a partridge in a pear tree" is Jesus Christ, symbolically presented as a mother partridge 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" represent the Old and New Testaments
• "three French hens" = the three Theological Virtues - Faith, Hope and Charity
• "four colly birds" ("colly" meaning "black as coal" is usually replaced with "calling" these days) represent the Four Gospels or the Four Evangelists - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
• "five golden rings" = the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible
• "six geese a-laying" = the six days of creation
• "seven swans a-swimming" = the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit
• "eight maids a-milking" are representative of the Eight Beatitudes
• "nine ladies dancing" = the Nine Choirs of Angels or the Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance)
• "ten lords a-leaping" = the Ten Commandments
• "eleven pipers piping" = the eleven faithful Disciples
• "twelve lords a-leaping" = the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed:
  
  I. I Believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; II. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord; III. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; IV. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried; V. The third day He rose again from the dead; VI. He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; VII. From thence he shall come to judge the Quick and the dead; VIII. I believe in the Holy Ghost; IX. Belief in the communion of saints; X. The forgiveness of sins; XI. The resurrection of the body; XII. And the life everlasting. Amen.

It seems like a lovely little legend, but apparently it's not true. The urban legend debunking site "snopes.com" has investigated the legend and found no supporting evidence.

Apparently, it all started with a 1982 article by Father Hal Stockert. In a postscript to the story, Father Hal says "Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant to me. You can enjoy it or not, as you choose. I hadn't written it as a doctoral thesis, simply as some delicious tidbit I thought the world would be delighted to share over a holiday season. It seems, however, that there is more than one grinch, and I am not at all interested in feeding the others who remain past the one in the Christmas cartoons. Believe if you will. Dissent if you choose. Let the rest enjoy the story."

Sounds harmless enough, but the conclusion to the snopes.com commentary gives us something more to think about, saying that despite the lack of evidence for the claim of the song's origin, "... 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." Emphasizing that Christ is part of Christmas is a fine thing, but achieving that goal by inventing and spreading phony explanations about purely secular aspects of Christmas is not. And perhaps those who consider this tale (regardless of its literal truth) to be "beautiful" and "inspirational" 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, should this really be one of them?"