We at AMERiders are in the spirit of giving! We would like to thank everyone that has helped us, and this is our thank you for helping AMERiders being what it is today. For the next 12 days, we would like to offer up the meaning behind the 12 days of Christmas Song. (one verse for each day).This came to us because the boss loves it and just loves to drive us nuts singing it. Yes, we’ve done the research and we know this starts on the 25th of December, but however you know that we at AMERIders are not normal so we are going to start this the 12 days before Christmas.  We apologize if what follows offends anyone it is not our intention just information that we found online.

Before we go into a song that is stemmed in controversy of what the meaning behind the song actually is we would like to remind you of our Winter Holiday Event, Don’t forget that you get 20% percent off on orders over $50 automatically. With our usual Free Shipping on orders over $50 as well.

On to the meaning behind the beloved song.

“The 12 Days of Christmas” is an English Christmas carol that enumerates in the manner of a cumulative song a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas (the twelve days after Christmas). The song, published in England in 1780 without music as a chant or rhyme, is thought to be French in origin. However, there are ideas that think this may not be so. It is a cumulative song, meaning that each verse is built on top of the previous verses. There are twelve verses, each describing a gift given by “my true love” on one of the twelve days of Christmas. There are many variations in the lyrics depending on where you are in the world and have been changed slightly down through the years.

The exact origins and the meaning of the song are unknown, but it is highly probable that it originated from a children’s memory and forfeit game.

The best known English version was first printed in English in 1780 in a little book intended for children, Mirth without Mischief, as a Twelfth Night “memories-and-forfeits” game, in which a leader recited a verse, each of the players repeated the verse, the leader added another verse, and so on until one of the players made a mistake, with the player who erred having to pay a penalty, such as offering up a kiss or a sweet. One hundred years later, Lady Gomme, a collector of folktales and rhymes, described how it used to be played every Twelfth Day night before eating mince pies and twelfth cake.

Husk, writing in 1864, stated:

This piece is found on broadsides printed at Newcastle at various periods during the last hundred and fifty years. On one of these sheets, nearly a century old, it is entitled “An Old English Carol,” but it can scarcely be said to fall within that description of composition, being rather fitted for use in playing the game of “Forfeits,” to which purpose it was commonly applied in the metropolis upwards of forty years since. The practice was for one person in the company to recite the first three lines; a second, the four following; and so on; the person who failed in repeating her portion correctly being subjected to some trifling forfeit.

Variations of the lyrics

The earliest known version of the lyrics was published under the title “The Twelve Days of Christmas sung at King Pepin’s Ball”, as part of a 1780 children’s book, Mirth without Mischief. Subsequent versions have shown considerable variation:

-In the earliest versions, the word “On” is not present at the beginning of each verse—for example, the first verse begins simply “The first day of Christmas”. “On” was added in Austin’s 1909 version, and became very popular thereafter.

-In the early versions, “my true love sent” me the gifts. However, a 20th-century variant has “my true love gave to me”; this wording has become particularly common in North America.

-The 1780 version has “four colly birds”—”colly” being a regional English expression for “black”. This wording must have been opaque to many even in the 19th century: “canary birds”, “colored birds”, “curly birds”, and “Corley birds” are found in its place. Frederic Austin’s 1909 version, which introduced the now-standard melody, also altered the fourth day’s gift to four “calling” birds, and this variant has become the most popular, although “colly” is still found.

-The “five gold rings” may become “five golden rings”, especially in North America. In the standard melody, this change enables singers to fit one syllable per musical note.

-The gifts associated with the final four days are often reordered. For example, the pipers may be on the ninth day rather than the eleventh.

While you’re shopping for great gifts during our AMERiders Winter Holiday Event, Don’t forget that you get 20% percent off on orders over $50 automatically. With our usual Free Shipping on orders over $50 as well.

Other origins

In England, between 1558 and 1829, it was not legal for Catholics to practice their kind of Christianity in public or private. Being a Catholic was treated as a bad crime. If you even owned a Catholic Bible, you could be put in prison! Catholics were stopped from worshipping because King Henry VIII fell out with the Catholic Church and started his own ‘Protestant’ Church (what is now the Church of England). There were many people who were still Catholics and they worshiped in secret.

‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ was written in England at the beginning of this time. Some people think that it was written to help children learn about their Catholic religion. In the carol, the days are supposed to represent special symbols and have hidden meanings, because it was illegal to have anything in writing that would indicate that you were a Catholic.

But there’s NO evidence that this is true and it seems most likely just to be a folk song and that the special ‘Catholic’ meanings were added at a MUCH later date!

Song verse explanation.

Also, all the symbols can be used by Protestants and other Christians, not just by Catholics! There was another song called ‘A New Dial’ (also called ‘In Those Twelve Days’), which goes back as far as at least 1625, which gave religious meanings to the 12 Days of Christmas, but NOT so people could practice their faith is secret. If you’d like to know more about this, please go to the 12 Days of Christmas page on snopes.com

The ‘partridge in a pear tree‘ means God. (In ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, it can also mean Jesus who died on the cross. In ancient times a partridge was often used as a mythological symbol of a divine, sacred king. Partridges weren’t introduced into England, from France, until the 1770s, which also points to any extra meanings being added later!)

The 12 Days each traditionally celebrate a feast day for a saint and/or have different celebrations: Day 1 (25th December): Christmas Day – celebrating the Birth of Jesus

Stay tuned for tomorrow for our continuation with the 2nd Day of Christmas, and also Don’t forget While you’re shopping for great gifts during our AMERiders Winter Holiday Event, that you get 20% percent off on orders over $50 automatically. With our usual Free Shipping on orders over $50 as well.

~And as always….

~Live Free Ride Hard~

~AMERiders

and

Let AMERiders give you gift ideas for the holidays as well as inform you about the 12 Days of Christmas Origin.

And as always don’t forget to send us your stories, pictures and events for posting to GALLERY.AMERIDERS @ GMAIL.COM  and we will post them for you. The more people that know about your event the better and we are offering free advertising. We would also love to hear about your rides and love to see those bikes so send those stories and pictures.

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