On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
A partridge in a pear tree.
... and the actual Boxing Day "Twelve Days of Christmas" emoticon:
On the Second Day of Christmas, my True Love sent to Me
Two Turtle-Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.
This is also known as Saint Stephen's Day (aka Feast of Saint Stephen or Feast of Stephen, familiar to us from the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas.)
LOTS OF STUFF THAT MOST OF YOU WON'T WANT TO READ (especially if you're full with turkey and plum pudding and ham and roast potatoes and pumpkin and cauliflower and carrots and parsnips, etc., which is why I've put it into a spoiler:
Spoiler
Since it is the Feast of Stephen today, I'm adding a few Feast-of-Stephen things into this post. The carol Good King Wenceslas dates to the 1850s, when a hymnwriter called John Mason Neale got hold of a copy of Piae Cantiones ecclesiasticae et scholasticae veterum episcoporum (a collection of religious and secular mediæval songs - printed/published for the first time in 1582). This songbook was completely unfamiliar to England, until the British ambassador to Sweden returned to England with this rare copy, and bestowed it upon Neale (since Neale was apparently known to have an interest in music of this period).
Neale took one of the songs in this collection (the song called Tempus ades floridem, which means Now has come the flowering time) and used it with his own lyrics. I don't know when he wrote those lyrics; it could have been before he ever saw the music... but at any rate, Good King Wenceslas was published by Neale and Thomas Helmore (a choirmaster - familiar with mediæval music notation) as part of a Christmas song collection in 1853.
Good King Wenceslas is based on an historical figure - a Bohemian duke called Václav the Good who is actually the patron saint of Bohemia. (By the way - his manner of death? Assassination by his wicked brother, appropriately enough known as Borislaus the Cruel. This wasn't the first murder in the family; Wenceslaus's own mother - who was born into a pagan family - was jealous that her mother-in-law (Ludmila) became regent over the Duchy of Bohemia after Wenceslaus' father died, and had Ludmila murdered. She then seized control of the country by assuming the regency herself, and acted against Christianity and Christians. These measures were repealed after Wenceslaus came of age and became ruler - and his mother was banished from Bohemia.
Wenceslaus was known as a pious and kindly man. Stories of his generosity and his help to the poor date back to just ten or twenty years after his death (cf. The First Slavonic Life), and there's a very telling quotation about him dating back to no more than 150 years after his death:
❝But his deeds I think you know better than I could tell you; for, as is read in his Passion, no one doubts that, rising every night from his noble bed, with bare feet and only one chamberlain, he went around to God’s churches and gave alms generously to widows, orphans, those in prison and afflicted by every difficulty, so much so that he was considered, not a prince, but the father of all the wretched.❞
- Cosmas of Prague, Book I of Chronica of Boëmorum
So there's certainly some historical precedent for Neale's lyrics.
I did read that Neale's text is actually a translation of a poem called Sankt Wenceslaw und Podiwin (written in the 1800s), and this is pretty freely disseminated and restated throughout the internet. The only source that I could find for this assumption is from a book called Die Wenzelslegende des Mönchs Christian, by Herman Kølman, where he has a footnote stating that:
❝Neales Inspirationsquelle war ein Gedicht von Václav Alois Svoboda (Aloys Swoboda) »Sanct Wenceslaw und Podiwin, Legende in böhmischer, teutscher und lateinischer Sprache«, Praha 1847❞
- Kølman, Herman. Die Wenzelslegende des Mönchs Christian, p. 15.
On the Third Day of Christmas, my True Love sent to Me
Three French Hens
Two Turtle-Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.
On the Fourth Day of Christmas, my True Love sent to Me
Four Colly-Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle-Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.
Just popped in to say I love them all.
I love the way some people took off and sang their own version (what a hoot) and I love countess's version too.
No such thing as too many songs this year. They are all good.
Oh no... oh dear... TARDY LOVER.
It's the 9th day of Christmas today. I'll need to catch up quickly.
On the Fifth Day of Christmas, my True Love sent to Me
Five Go-o-ooold Rings
Four Colly-Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle-Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.
On the Sixth Day of Christmas, my True Love sent to Me
Six Geese a-Laying
Five Go-o-ooold Rings
Four Colly-Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle-Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.
