Day 11 – The Religious Roots of the 12 Days of Christmas?

This Christmas, a friend of mine heard on the radio that the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was originally written to teach some truths about Christianity. This got me curious and so I decided to look this up. I discovered 2 interesting things:

First, there was a song called “In Those Twelve Days” which was written to help teach the catechism. This song was written to coincide with the 12 Days of Christmas (the days, not the song). It includes things such as 1 God, 2 parts of the Bible (OT and NT), 3 in the Trinity (Father, Son, Spirit), 4 Gospels, 5 books of Moses, 6 Days of Creation, etc.

Second, the song “The 12 Days of Christmas” was not written for that purpose. Perhaps many have mixed up these two songs, since they both have to do with 12 Days of Christmas.

With that said, we as Christians can think about the parts of “In Those Twelve Days” whenever we read or sing “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” We can also use it as a teaching tool for Christianity, like the song “In Those Twelve Days.” However, let’s be careful not to mix up the origins of these two songs.

Here’s a link to the snopes.com article about the songs:
http://snopes.com/holidays/christmas/music/12days.asp