http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/christmas/carols_3.shtml
I thought that this was fascinating and had to post it. I don't know if it is true. So pleas don't take it as Gospel truth. It's fascinating all the same.
The Twelve Days of Christmas
The Twelve Days of Christmas is different from other Christmas carols, because it doesn't seem to have a religious theme and it doesn't deal with the Nativity.
Origin
The most likely origin of the carol is in a memory game played on Twelfth Night many years ago.
The players would sing a verse in turn and each player would add a new gift when it came to their own verse - the catch was that they had to remember the all the earlier gifts as they sang their way through the list of presents. Anyone who forgot a gift would have to pay a forfeit to entertain everyone else.
That's the story given by The New Oxford Book of Carols, which records that the version we sing nowadays was printed in 1864, although other versions appeared earlier.
The book goes on to point out that some people have tried to find religious images in this carol - suggesting, for example, that the partridge is a symbol of the devil. There's also a folk belief that if a girl walks backwards towards a pear tree and then round it three times she will see an image of the man she's going to marry.
But there's another story about this carol that gives it much greater religious significance. It's most unlikely to be true, but it illustrates the way in which a popular song can be reworked as a hymn or carol.
The legend
This 'urban legend' says that the song was written at a time when Roman Catholic worship was illegal in England and Catholics had to find covert ways of communicating their faith.
The Twelve Days of Christmas, the story goes, was written to contain the basic beliefs of Catholicism, masked in secular words.
A partridge in a pear tree. Said to symbolize Jesus Christ, a mother partridge protecting her nestlings (Jesus's followers).
Two turtle doves. The Old and the New Testaments.
Three French hens. The Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity.
Four calling/colly birds. The four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Five gold rings. The first five books of the Old Testament telling the story of man's fall from grace.
Six geese a laying. The six days of creation.
Seven swans a-swimming. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Eight maids a-milking. The eight Beatitudes.
Nine ladies dancing. The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Ten lords a-leaping. The Ten Commandments.
Eleven pipers piping. The eleven faithful disciples.
Twelve drummers drumming. The twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed. Common form of the legend
Some of the concepts said to be symbolized by each gift vary between versions.
The real story
There's no evidence to suggest that the carol was written as a covert catechism - and since there's nothing particularly Roman Catholic in the concepts it contains there would have been no point in doing so, since the beliefs it's said to refer to could have been openly taught.
Perhaps the idea that the song was religious was inspired by number carols like The Seven Joys of Mary or The New Dial, a song that uses the hours of the clock to relate Christian concepts. Another folk song, Green Grow the Rushes-O, is closely related to The New Dial and it is full of hidden religious references which the writer Erik Routley has listed in his book The English Carol.
But, legend or not, if anyone wants a song to teach a few basic Christian beliefs and test their memory, The Twelve Days of Christmas would seem to fit the bill nicely.
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