"Four Pigs Trotters ?"

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Today, well what’s left of it, is -

“The First Day of Christmas”.

I am reliably informed, as I am no expert on Church matters,

that these “Twelve Days of Christmas” represent

the ‘Coming of Men to God‘.

The culmination of the Twelve Days was the arrival of the Three Kings at Epiphany.

Try as I may, I have been unable to trace the origin of the famous song by the same name.

You know the one - ‘What my true love gave to me’.

Try, as I also may, I was unable to find neither the words,

nor the music in my modest collection of Carol Books,

even though they span a period if 150 years!

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What you will find though, from searching the web, is that there are dozens of different versions.

I expect that figure will get into the hundreds,

if you include all those from around the world and in different languages.

So, today, all you Lucky Lovers, you can expect, in addition to all those boxes you received earlier, ‘A partridge in a Pear Tree’.

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And on Tuesday,

just when you thought you had seen off the last of the turkey,

you can expect to have to sign for the delivery of ‘Three French Hens’.

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As I didn’t have the words and music -

and as I’m sure you don’t want me to go all through them anyway -

here is an unusual version for all you foodies.

"On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me;

One boneless stuffing,

Two breasts of veal,

Three joints of beef,

Four pig’s trotters,

Five legs of mutton,

Six partridges with cabbage,

Seven spitted rabbits,

Eight plates of salad,

Nine dishes for a chapterful of Canons,

Ten full casks,

Eleven bosomy maidens,

And ........

Twelve musketeers with their swords!"

If it sound a bit ‘Double Dutch’, you’re not far off.

The original song was in French!

Me? Well as they say in ordering a Chinese take-a-way.

“I’ll have a number four, a number ten and a double portion of number eleven”.

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