Twelve Days of Christmas History

Christmas » History of Christmas » Twelve Days of Christmas History

Christmas is the festival that brings hope, happiness and joy in the life of every individual. During Christmas, every individual gets an opportunity to spend quality time with family and friends. The preparations for the festival begin well in advance. Homes are cleaned and decorated with wreaths, garlands and twigs of holly and mistletoe. A Christmas tree is brought home and is decorated with ornaments, paper flowers and tinsel people have family reunions, feasts and parties in the Christmas holiday season. The entire atmosphere is filled with festive fervor. A lot of traditions are associated with Christmas. The history of twelve days of Christmas is quite interesting.

The twelve days of Christmas begin from Christmas Eve and end with the feast of Epiphany. These twelve days have their origin in medieval times. The Yule log was kept burning for all the twelve days. If the fire goes of then it was considered as a bad omen. Till the eighteenth century, the twelfth night was an important occasion. People celebrated the festival using masks and dressing in disguise. The men used to dress like women and vice versa. On the twelfth night, a special cake was baked. The male and female were termed as king and queen who had a bean or pea in their portion of cake. Later, this tradition evolved as a game, which is today referred as charades.

The twelfth night had religious significance during olden times. Today, this day is used to remove all the Christmas decorations and Christmas tree. The twelfth day is considered as the day when three wise men came to visit Jesus and give him three special gifts. The gifts were gold, frankincense and myrrh. These gifts were symbolic.

All the twelve days have religious significance. The significance is as follows:

• The first day of the twelve nights is represented by a partridge on a pear tree.
• The old and new testaments are represented by the two turtle doves.
• The three French hens symbolize the values of faith, hope and charity.
• The gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John are represented by four calling birds.
• The five books of old testaments are represented by five golden rings.
• The six geese stand for the biblical story of sis day creation.
• Seven swans show the seven sacraments.
• The eight milking maids are symbols of eight beatitudes.
• The nine ladies dancing represent the nine fruits of Holy Spirit.
• The ten lords leaping show the Ten Commandments.
• The eleven pipers stand for the eleven faithful apostles of Jesus.
• The twelve drummers represent the twelve points of principle

The tradition of twelve days of Christmas still continues with some changes. People celebrate the twelfth night with a special feast. Even though, the religious importance is lost in today's modern era.