Holiday songs are playing everywhere...even the elevator muzak has turned Christmas! One song I hear alot, and it kind of annoys me, is The Twelve Days of Christmas. It's just waaay long, and who can remember if Lord's a Leapin' is day four, or is it maid's a milkin'...
The famous parody of the song is my favorite, "The second thing of Christmas that's such a pain to me ... rigging up the lights...and finding a Christmas Tree." But the song actually has it's origins in the Christian faith, with each day symbolic of an inpsirational gift.
So...with the Twelve Days of Christmas officially upon us, here is the historic meaning of the song...
The partridge in a pear tree is symbolic of Christ upon the Cross. In the song, He is symbolically presented as a mother partridge because she would feign injury to decoy a predator away from her nest. She was even willing to die for them.
The tree is the symbol of redemption.
Who knew?