Cecil Sharp's Folk Songs from Somerset (1905) contains two different melodies for the song, both distinct from the now-standard melody. Each day was taken up and repeated all round; and for every breakdown (except by little Maggie, who struggled with desperately earnest round eyes to follow the rest correctly, but with very comical results), the player who made the slip was duly noted down by Mabel for a forfeit. This wording must have been opaque to many even in the 19th century: " canary birds", "colour'd birds", "curley birds", and "corley birds" are found in its place. This is a traditional English singing game but the melody of five gold rings was added by Richard[ sic] Austin whose fine setting (Novello) should be consulted for a fuller accompaniment.

The 12 Days of Christmas, explained: The story behind the The 12 Days of Christmas, explained: The story behind the

The carol, whose words were first published in England in the late eighteenth century, has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 68. 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. Sherman wrote and performed his version of the classic Christmas carol on a 1963 TV special that was taped well in advance of the holiday. 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 index has been humorously criticised for not accurately reflecting the true cost of the gifts featured in the Christmas carol.

Similar statements are found in John Rutter's 1967 arrangement, [76] and in the 1992 New Oxford Book of Carols. Whether you’ll be spending a whopping 30 grand on some birds and musicians, or looking at a different range of Christmas presents for your beloved, make sure you’ve got these lyrics memorised so you can impress your true love with a perfect rendition of the twelve days tune. Before the fifth verse (when "Five gold rings" is first sung), the melody, using solfege, is "sol re mi fa re" for the fourth to second items, and this same melody is thereafter sung for the twelfth to sixth items.

The twelve days of Christmas - BBC Teach The twelve days of Christmas - BBC Teach

Let’s discover that incredibly generous ‘true love’ who bestows the bunch of daily bizarre gifts on the song’s protagonist. The possibility that the twelve gifts were used as a catechism during the period of Catholic repression was also hypothesised in this same time period (1987 and 1992) by Fr. Featuring different animals discussing or trying to remember the lyrics of the song, it was released on Christmas Day 2005. Some variants have " juniper tree" or " June apple tree" rather than "pear tree", presumably a mishearing of "partri dge in a pear tree". Christian rock band Relient K released a recording of the song on their 2007 album Let It Snow, Baby.Since 1984, the cumulative costs of the items mentioned in the song have been used as a tongue-in-cheek economic indicator. As each gift is received, Gobnait gets increasingly upset with the person who sent them, as said gifts wreak havoc in the house where he lives with his mother. Similarly, Iceland has a Christmas tradition where " Yule Lads" put gifts in the shoes of children for each of the 13 nights of Christmas. This piece is found on broadsides printed at Newcastle at various periods during the last hundred and fifty years. Bow women’ walk in medieval costumes at the Epiphany Befana parade in Florence, Italy on the 6th January.

The Twelve Days of Christmas (song) - Wikipedia The Twelve Days of Christmas (song) - Wikipedia

A special Creature Comforts orchestral arrangement of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was made by British animator Nick Park and Aardman Animations. A large number of different melodies have been associated with the song, of which the best known is derived from a 1909 arrangement of a traditional folk melody by English composer Frederic Austin. This would explain the number of verses in the song, and the repetition of each previous gift in every new verse. This version charted in both Ireland (where it reached number 8 in 1982) and the UK (entering the UK chart in December 1983 and reaching number 26). In the UK and other commonwealth countries, the 26th December is commemorated as the national holiday Boxing Day, while the 6th January, is seen as the last day you can have your Christmas decorations up by many European countries.Importance [certainly has] long been attached to the Twelve Days, when, for instance, the weather on each day was carefully observed to see what it would be in the corresponding month of the coming year. None of the enumerated items would distinguish Catholics from Protestants, and so would hardly need to be secretly encoded. This was also suggested by Anne Gilchrist, who observed in 1916 that "from the constancy in English, French, and Languedoc versions of the 'merry little partridge,' I suspect that 'pear-tree' is really perdrix (Old French pertriz) carried into England".