Christmas carol serves as a good mind game

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

Have trouble remembering things?

Memory glitches don't always mean we're getting old. With so much to do, keeping everything straight becomes a matter for calendars, computers and personal planners.

But before palm pilots, there were tricks to help our memories - for example, training specialists suggest using odd times - like 6:59 or 7:27 instead of 7 or 7:30 - to jog recall for meetings. And name games are used when meeting new people - word plays on names or visual clues like "Perry White has white hair and two moles on his nose." Cars have "vanity plates." And who forgets "doe, re, me, fa, and so, lah, ti, doe" for music?

Memory games help us sort and file all sorts of things. Getting catechism basics is no different. "How many Sundays in Advent?" "Four." "And how many days in Lent?" "40."

Songs, like some Christmas carols, have long been used to remember key points of our faith. For example, "I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In" originally seems to have meant the Wise Men, whose supposed skulls were brought by ship to Cologne, Germany, in the Middle Ages. And ships also refer to camels, the "ships of the desert."

But the most famous Christmas carol for memory and religion may be "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

A quaint legend surrounds this traditional English carol: that it was a "catechism song" used to teach elements of the faith at a time of Catholic persecution. Since Catholicism was banned in England from the 16th century until 1829, many people believe this carol helped clandestinely teach the Catholic faith.

However, since many parts of the song share the same meanings with the Protestant faith in England, and since no other catechism songs seem to exist, this could be more a tall tale than truth.

More likely, this carol developed as a "memory and forfeits" game, also popular at that time, and also used as a teaching tool. In the game, one person says the first part of a phrase, and another has to correctly complete the phrase, or forfeit their turn. For example, one might say, "the second president of the United States was" and you'd answer: "John Adams."

Whichever is closer to the truth, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" can be used for catechesis, as a fun way to recall key elements of beliefs and fitting in with our time-honored "oral tradition" of passing on the faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls catechesis a form of education that is imparted "in an organic and systematic way, with a view to initiating the hearers into the fullness of Christian life" (n. 5).

With all the animals, birds and dancers, this carol truly expresses "the fullness of life." So here are the 12 Days of Christmas, with the most common religious meanings attributed to each gift:

• A partridge in a pear tree -- Christ the Lord, the true gift of Christmas.

• Two turtledoves -- the gift of God's Word in the Old and New Testaments. Turtledoves are also mentioned in Luke (2:24) as the gifts Mary and Joseph presented at the Temple after Jesus' birth.

• Three French hens -- the three theological virtues of faith, hope and love, as well as the Trinity.

• Four calling birds -- the gift of the Good News: the four Gospels. (Also, it seems the correct pronunciation is "colly birds" referring to blackbirds, or coal-colored birds, which were a delicacy in the 16th century. Remember "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie"?)

• Five gold rings -- the first five books of the Bible, also called the Pentateuch or the Books of Moses, refer to our faith's Jewish roots. (There is also an argument that "gold rings" was originally "goldspinks," a Scottish word for goldfinch. Since the goldfinch - with its red forehead spot - is often associated with the crown of thorns, it shows a Christological reference.)

• Six geese a-laying -- the six days of creation.

• Seven swans a-swimming -- the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, piety, fortitude and fear of the Lord (from Is 11).

• Eight maids a-milking -- the beatitudes taught by Jesus.

• Nine ladies dancing -- the fruits of the Spirit listed in Gal 5:22-23: charity (love), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. To these are usually added generosity (part of charity), modesty and chastity to make the traditional 12 fruits of the Spirit in Catholic teaching.

• Ten lords a-leaping -- the Ten Commandments.

• Eleven pipers -- the apostles who remained faithful to Christ.

• Twelve drummers -- the 12 points of belief in the Apostles Creed, also called the 12 articles of faith.

A final thing to remember, of course, is the "true love" who gives all these gifts - 78 in total - a new gift for each of the 12 days of Christmas (traditionally from Dec. 26 through Jan. 6, the feast of Epiphany.) The traditional "true love" in the carol is none other than God, the source of all gifts and goodness, whose love is ever true and everlasting - something we remember anew each Advent season.