Off they go, singing “12 Days of Christmas” without a clue what that song is celebrating. On the surface the song is about the 12 days of the Yuletide Season. Those 12 days predate the Christian dominance in Europe. They date back to the Teutonic/Germanic celebration of the Winter Solstice, Yule. The tribes and clans of that period celebrated a twelve-day period that welcomed the returning Sun. It started on the longest night of the year and ended twelve days later when it was obvious the days were starting to get longer. Those folks didn’t have calendars. They judged seasons based on the Sun.
In our modern, calendar dictated world those twelve days have almost lost all meaning. It is measured from Christmas Day until January 6th, Epiphany or All King’s Day. Our current calendar, the Gregorian calendar, which was introduced in 1582, puts Epiphany on January 6th. Yep, twelve days.
As you sing about 12 lords a’leaping and partridges in pear trees, don’t forget that those twelve days may be about Christmas now, but they date to the pre-Christian world of Europe. And they’re not really about gifts, but watching the Sun grow stronger in the sky.
