The Twelve Days of Christmas<\/h3>\n<\/div> Alexandra Coghlan: <\/strong>Of all the Christmas<\/a> carols we sing today, none presents more of a challenge than The Twelve Days of Christmas<\/em>, with its baffling list of lyrics. What exactly are we to make of this aviary of birds \u2013 the swans, geese, doves, hens and calling birds \u2013 and what on earth is a partridge (strictly a ground bird) doing up a pear tree? The origins of the carol make things a little clearer. Historians generally agree that the verse first evolved as a festive memory game. The list of objects or animals grows with each verse and forfeits are imposed for forgetting one.<\/p>\nBut that still leaves us with the problem of the partridge. While the English partridge is a creature of fields and moors, its French cousin is apparently more likely to find itself up a tree. And if the partridge really is<\/em> French then it would be called une perdrix<\/em>. Correctly pronounced \u2018pere-dree\u2019, suddenly this word sounds an awful lot like that pear tree. Could it, perhaps, just be an elaborate international game of Chinese whispers that has left us with a partridge stuck forever in a misheard pear tree?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Did you know?<\/h4>\n
Although Christmas was celebrated in song in the Middle Ages, most carols in use now are less than 200 years old. Only a handful, such as I Saw Three Ships<\/em> or the decidedly pagan-sounding The Holly and the Ivy<\/em>, remind us of more ancient yuletides. Carols fell from favour in England after the Reformation<\/a> because of their frivolity and were rarely sung in churches until the 1880s when EW\u202f Benson, Bishop of Truro (later Archbishop of Canterbury) drew up the format for the Nine Lessons and Carols service, which has remained in use ever since.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section><\/div>\n
One interpretation of the carol places its origin in the 16th century. The list of bizarre gifts given by the carol author\u2019s \u2018true love\u2019 becomes a secret code for Catholics \u2013 whose religion had to be practised in secret after the Reformation \u2013 to share their beliefs. So the \u2018true love\u2019 becomes God himself and the partridge Jesus Christ<\/a>. The \u2018two turtle doves\u2019 are the old and new testaments, \u2018three French hens\u2019 the Trinity, \u2018four calling birds\u2019 are the four Gospels, all the way through to \u2018twelve drummers drumming\u2019 \u2013 the twelve points of the apostles\u2019 creed. If you were a Tudor child, wouldn\u2019t you much rather recite this than your catechism?<\/p>\n- Read more | How much is known about the birth of Jesus?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
We Wish You a Merry Christmas<\/h3>\n<\/div> AC:<\/strong> What\u2019s interesting about this catchy little carol are the customs it reveals. Both wassailing and mumming were still going strong under the Tudor monarchs, with carollers and players going from door to door performing. It was terribly bad luck not to reward their efforts with food and drink, including the \u2018figgy pudding\u2019 \u2013 an early version of what we now know as Christmas pudding<\/a>.<\/div>\n![\""Three\"]( "\\"\"Three\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Three young carol singers. (Photo by Keystone\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nDeck the Halls<\/h3>\n<\/div> \nAC: <\/strong>One popular 16th-century song was the carol we know today as Deck the Halls<\/em>. Back then it was a favourite Welsh song, originally titled Nos Galan<\/em>. It wasn\u2019t until the 19th century that it acquired Christmassy words and became part of our own festivities. In its earliest form, Deck the Halls<\/em> was just a folk song, but one with some rather naughty words. Translated directly, the Welsh text reads something like this:<\/p>\nOh! how soft my fair one\u2019s bosom, fal lal lal lal lal lal lal lal la\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nOh! how sweet the grove in blossom, fal lal lal lal lal lal lal lal la<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nOh! how blessed are the blisses, Words of love, and mutual kisses, fal lal lal lal lal lal lal lal la\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n![\""A\"]( "\\"\"A\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> A Christmas carols greeting card received in 1893. (Photo by Amoret Tanner\/Alamy Stock Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Holly and the Ivy<\/h3>\n<\/div> \nSo try as Christian carol writers might to impose their own symbols on the plants \u2013 the red holly berry as Jesus\u2019s blood, the white holly flower his shroud \u2013 they have to work hard to displace earlier layers of meaning. Some think there\u2019s a further secret layer of meaning to the carol. Is the holly, with its phallic prickles, a symbol of the masculine, and the clinging ivy of the feminine? English courtiers were fond of such hidden language and holly-and-ivy carols could have formed the basis of courting games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n Discover more about the history of Christmas!<\/h3>\n- Who is Santa Claus?<\/a><\/li>\n
- How did the Tudors celebrate Christmas?<\/a><\/li>\n
- What did people eat for Christmas dinner in the past?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Did Charles Dickens invent Christmas as we know it today?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Who invented Christmas crackers?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Listen: Everything you ever wanted to know about the history of Christmas<\/a><\/li>\n
- What was Christmas like in the Victorian era?<\/a><\/li>\n
- The con man who saved Christmas<\/a><\/li>\n
- Listen: Christmas ghost stories<\/a><\/li>\n
- A real<\/em> castle for Christmas: 5 places to explore and stay this festive season<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>
<\/p><\/div> <\/section><\/div>\n
5<\/span> Silent Night<\/h3>\n<\/div> \nAC: <\/strong>A firm favourite throughout the 19th century was the lovely Silent Night<\/em>. Schoolmaster Franz Xaver Gruber and priest Joseph Mohr first performed the carol in the church of St Nikola in Oberndorf, Austria, in its original German (Stille Nacht<\/em>) on Christmas Eve 1818.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nLegends attached to this timeless carol persist, to a point where it\u2019s hard to dig out the truth from among them. One charming tale tells of mice chewing through vital sections of St Nikola\u2019s organ, leaving the church without music at Christmas. The resourceful young teacher and priest, so the story goes, stepped in to save the service by composing a simple carol that could be sung with just guitar accompaniment.\nEugene Byrne: <\/strong>Its fame eventually spread (allegedly it has been translated into over 300 languages and dialects) and it famously played a key role in the unofficial truce in the trenches in 1914 because it was one of the only carols that both British and German soldiers knew.<\/p><\/div>\n
Alexandra Coghlan: <\/strong>Of all the Christmas<\/a> carols we sing today, none presents more of a challenge than The Twelve Days of Christmas<\/em>, with its baffling list of lyrics. What exactly are we to make of this aviary of birds \u2013 the swans, geese, doves, hens and calling birds \u2013 and what on earth is a partridge (strictly a ground bird) doing up a pear tree? The origins of the carol make things a little clearer. Historians generally agree that the verse first evolved as a festive memory game. The list of objects or animals grows with each verse and forfeits are imposed for forgetting one.<\/p>\n But that still leaves us with the problem of the partridge. While the English partridge is a creature of fields and moors, its French cousin is apparently more likely to find itself up a tree. And if the partridge really is<\/em> French then it would be called une perdrix<\/em>. Correctly pronounced \u2018pere-dree\u2019, suddenly this word sounds an awful lot like that pear tree. Could it, perhaps, just be an elaborate international game of Chinese whispers that has left us with a partridge stuck forever in a misheard pear tree?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Although Christmas was celebrated in song in the Middle Ages, most carols in use now are less than 200 years old. Only a handful, such as I Saw Three Ships<\/em> or the decidedly pagan-sounding The Holly and the Ivy<\/em>, remind us of more ancient yuletides. Carols fell from favour in England after the Reformation<\/a> because of their frivolity and were rarely sung in churches until the 1880s when EW\u202f Benson, Bishop of Truro (later Archbishop of Canterbury) drew up the format for the Nine Lessons and Carols service, which has remained in use ever since.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section><\/div>\n One interpretation of the carol places its origin in the 16th century. The list of bizarre gifts given by the carol author\u2019s \u2018true love\u2019 becomes a secret code for Catholics \u2013 whose religion had to be practised in secret after the Reformation \u2013 to share their beliefs. So the \u2018true love\u2019 becomes God himself and the partridge Jesus Christ<\/a>. The \u2018two turtle doves\u2019 are the old and new testaments, \u2018three French hens\u2019 the Trinity, \u2018four calling birds\u2019 are the four Gospels, all the way through to \u2018twelve drummers drumming\u2019 \u2013 the twelve points of the apostles\u2019 creed. If you were a Tudor child, wouldn\u2019t you much rather recite this than your catechism?<\/p>\n AC: <\/strong>One popular 16th-century song was the carol we know today as Deck the Halls<\/em>. Back then it was a favourite Welsh song, originally titled Nos Galan<\/em>. It wasn\u2019t until the 19th century that it acquired Christmassy words and became part of our own festivities. In its earliest form, Deck the Halls<\/em> was just a folk song, but one with some rather naughty words. Translated directly, the Welsh text reads something like this:<\/p>\n Oh! how soft my fair one\u2019s bosom, fal lal lal lal lal lal lal lal la\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Oh! how sweet the grove in blossom, fal lal lal lal lal lal lal lal la<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Oh! how blessed are the blisses, Words of love, and mutual kisses, fal lal lal lal lal lal lal lal la\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n So try as Christian carol writers might to impose their own symbols on the plants \u2013 the red holly berry as Jesus\u2019s blood, the white holly flower his shroud \u2013 they have to work hard to displace earlier layers of meaning. Some think there\u2019s a further secret layer of meaning to the carol. Is the holly, with its phallic prickles, a symbol of the masculine, and the clinging ivy of the feminine? English courtiers were fond of such hidden language and holly-and-ivy carols could have formed the basis of courting games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section><\/div>\n AC: <\/strong>A firm favourite throughout the 19th century was the lovely Silent Night<\/em>. Schoolmaster Franz Xaver Gruber and priest Joseph Mohr first performed the carol in the church of St Nikola in Oberndorf, Austria, in its original German (Stille Nacht<\/em>) on Christmas Eve 1818.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Eugene Byrne: <\/strong>Its fame eventually spread (allegedly it has been translated into over 300 languages and dialects) and it famously played a key role in the unofficial truce in the trenches in 1914 because it was one of the only carols that both British and German soldiers knew.<\/p><\/div>\nDid you know?<\/h4>\n
We Wish You a Merry Christmas<\/h3>\n<\/div>
![\""Three\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2018\/01\/GettyImages-3069147202-b6b31c5.jpg?quality=90&resize=551%2C413"\" "\\"\"Three\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Deck the Halls<\/h3>\n<\/div>
![\""A\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2016\/12\/Carols-069148f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"A\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>The Holly and the Ivy<\/h3>\n<\/div>
Discover more about the history of Christmas!<\/h3>\n
Silent Night<\/h3>\n<\/div>