The First Day of Christmas is December 25th, Christmas Day, and proceeds from there. The 12th Day of Christmas is also known as The Epiphany. It is a feast day that celebrates the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ. The feast commemorates the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child, and thus, Jesus Christ's physical manifestation to the Gentiles. It is sometimes called Three Kings' Day..

The history is this: Borrowed from EWTN

Catholics in England during the period 1558 to 1829, when Parliament finally emancipated Catholics in England, were prohibited from ANY practice of their faith by law - private OR public. It was a crime to BE a Catholic.

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" was written in England as one of the "catechism songs" to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith - a memory aid, when to be caught with anything in *writing* indicating adherence to the Catholic faith could not only get you imprisoned, it could get you hanged, or shortened by a head - or hanged, drawn and quartered, a rather peculiar and ghastly punishment

if you want to read it all, it is rather awful, seriously, you can find here.

I had heard about this at church and then found these explanations on Facebook-Catholics Know The Answer Official Page.

So there you go :^)

Makes a little more sense to me now. 

Happy New Years

And Happy 5th Day of Christmas!!!

Martha