18 December 2011, 12:56
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The Twelve Days of Christmas is now known mainly from the carol, with its increasingly daft and meaningless gifts that emerge as the lover woos his love. My favourite take on it is John Julius Norwich’s thank you letters, which get increasingly frantic and end with… but I won’t spoil it. If you don’t know it, you can read it here.

There are all sorts of theories put forward about the meaning of the song, and indeed the context in which it might have been written. But what is clear is that nobody really knows.

The twelve days are often treated now as the twelve days leading up to Christmas Day, but originally the term referred to the twelve days between Christmas day and Epiphany; the day when the Magi reputedly arrived at the stable.

Kept as a feast in medieval times, the Twelve Days of Christmas were originally a spiritual period. And despite the madness of the gifts and the chaos of the story in the famous carol, what we offer you here is a Twelve Days of Christmas series of practices that will help us reconnect with ourselves and God after the delightful but demanding busyness of Christmas Day itself. And just for fun, we will use the structure of the song to guide us through.

Check back here each day, starting on Christmas Day, for an action to take on each of the twelve days.

Photo: Andrea Schaufler