The 12 Days of Christmas

28 December 2010: This is just too good to let pass and not post. The true origin and symbolism of the song.

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS


Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
Wednesday, 22 December 2010

I want to wish you the Merriest of Christmases this Saturday, but according to the song, the First Day of Christmas is the day after Christmas, December 26.

Ancient Christians celebrated "The Holidays," as our militant secularists insist on referring to them now, starting with the day after the birth of Jesus and ending on January 6th with the visit of the Magi in Matthew 2:11 known as the Epiphany.

Start with 12/26 and end with 1/6 and you get: the Twelve Days of Christmas.

You may be really tired of hearing Christmas songs by now, including this one, yet you may still be wondering what the heck partridges in a pear tree and eight maids a-milking have to do with the birth of the founder of Christianity. So I thought we might take a break from Serious Thoughts About World Events, and take a look at the song's origin, meaning, and current urban myth.

The earliest printed version of The Twelve Days of Christmas is in a children's book published in London in 1790, Mirth Without Mischief. It is called a "memory and forfeits" game played by children in the form of a song, where the leader recites a verse, each player in turn repeats it, the leader keeps adding verses until a player's memory fails him/her and has to forfeit a piece of candy (if a girl, a kiss on the leader's cheek).

Kids in 18th Century England, however, learned the game from French kids, who had been singing their version, "In Those Twelve Days" since at least 1625. We know the song was originally French, as for example, partridges were introduced into England from France in the 1770s.

Even though The Twelve Days of Christmas was a kids' song-game, it nonetheless had a deep religious meaning.

Unlike the PC Happy Holidays of today, centuries ago Christmas was above all a religious celebration. All of the song's twelve gifts are Christian symbols.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

A Christian's "true love" is God.

A partridge in a pear tree...

The partridge is Jesus; the pear tree stands for the Cross.

The French revered the mother partridge, which would feign injury to draw predators away from her nest and willing to sacrifice herself for the life of her children, and used the bird as a symbol for Jesus who lamented in Matthew 23:37: "O Jerusalem... How often would I have sheltered thee under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but thou wouldst not have it so."

Why a pear tree? Because it's a song in English full of alliteration: partridge-pear, two-turtle, maids-milking, swans-swimming, lords-leaping, pipers-piping, drummers-drumming.

On the second day...two turtle doves...

The sacrifice Joseph and Mary made for Jesus (they actually sacrifice two turtle doves in Luke 2:24).

The French original refers to the two gifts of the Old and New Testaments.

On the third day...three French hens...

The three things that abideth of I Corinthians 13:13 -- faith, hope, and charity. In the French original, the three persons of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost.

On the fourth day... four calling (in the English original, "colly" or black) birds...

The four Evangelists and their Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

On the fifth day... five golden rings...

Not rings on your finger, but ring-necked pheasants in keeping with the bird theme of the first seven verses; the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament known collectively as the Books of Moses.

On the sixth day... six geese a-laying...

The six days of Creation.

On the seventh day... seven swans a-swimming...

The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, much discussed by Augustine and Aquinas: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.

On the eighth day... eight maids a-milking...

The eight Beatitudes or those who are blessed from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:3-10 (the poor in spirit, who mourn, the meek, who thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, who are persecuted for righteousness).

On the ninth day... nine ladies a-dancing...

The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

On the tenth day...ten lords a-leaping...

The Ten Commandments.

On the eleventh day... eleven pipers piping...

The eleven loyal Disciples. We all know what happened to the twelfth.

On the twelfth day...twelve drummers drumming...

The twelve points of The Apostle's Creed.

That's the meaning.

Now on to the myth.

There is an "urban legend" floating in the Internet ether that the Twelve Days is a Catholic protest song, a secret catechism sung by English Catholics after Elizabeth I abolished "the old worship" in 1559, forbidding the open practice of Roman Catholicism (finally repealed by Parliament in 1829).

Yet all twelve enumerated gifts of the song were believed in common by both Catholics and Anglicans -- there is nothing in it exclusively Catholic needing to be secret and hidden.

Further, the song originated in France, not England. This myth was created by a Byzantine Catholic priest in Granville, New York named Hal Stockert in 1995.

He claimed he had done all sorts of research in 16th Century Latin texts and letters from Irish priests. When pressed to provide it, his dog had devoured his homework: "All of my notes were ruined when our church had a plumbing leak and the basement flooded."

Oh, he did make an electronic copy, but sadly it is on "a computer floppy disk that is so old that nobody has a machine that can read it anymore."

Hey, Hal: you're lying.

I have to tell you it was my son Jackson who gave me the idea to write this. The most wonderful Christmas present a man can have is his family and I am truly blessed with mine. Christmas gives us the opportunity to reflect upon and appreciate the blessings we all have in our lives. Merry Christmas -- all the way to January 6th.

Hal Lindsey Report: The Mystery of the Magi

26 December 2010: Click this embedded link to HisChannel to watch today's rebroadcast of The Hal Lindsey Report on "The Mystery of the Magi." This program is a truly Spirit-inspired study of the earthly birth of our Our Lord and Saviour - from Micah to the Book of Revelation - which is a blessing to all who will view it.

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”

“In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:
‘ But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
Are not the least among the rulers of Judah;
For out of you shall come a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

25 December 2010: To this post I'm adding this very timely linked TV segment from Prophecy in the News with Gary Stearman and JR Church entitled: "The Case for the Date of Our Savior's Birth." This agrees with and adds great detail to what I have long believed on this subject. Enjoy! A permanent link to the Prophecy in the News website is now in the "Favorites Links" on the right side navigation bar.

The Psalm 83 "Inner Ring" Solidifies

22 December 2010: This report began as an assessment on current events in the Middle East that I sent out as an Email to several Christian brothers on 13 December. The text of that Email follows.

"Subject: Israel - The Ultimate Joint Islamic Cause

Among the "inner ring" Psalm 83 nations only Egypt's publicly vehement opposition to the Shi'a Islamic regime in Iran appears to be intact. And that might change suddenly with an Islamist al-Ikhwan al-Muslimuun (Muslim Brotherhood) victory (coup d'etat) over the Mubarak regime in Cairo.

Syria, Lebanon, Gaza(Philistia), and certain elements within the West Bank are all benefactors of Iranian "assistance" in the continuing and ever increasing confrontation with Israel. Now Jordan, in the person of its reigning monarch, King Abdullah, made it clear yesterday (12 December) that the Hashemite Kingdom intends to follow the lead of its Sunni Arab brothers in reaching out to Iran. This is a stunning and totally out-of-the-blue reversal of Jordanian foreign policy vis-a-vis the Islamic Republic. Why and why now?

Jordan's king wants improved ties with Iran

Excerpt: "The Jordanian (Royal Court) statement quoted Abdullah as saying it was "imperative to undertake practical steps for improving Jordanian-Iranian relations in the service of both countries, their brotherly people and joint Islamic causes and to consolidate security and stability in the region."

Assessment:

I believe this reversal is based upon the Islamic imperative that confrontation with and destruction of Israel is the ultimate in joint Islamic causes. Consolidated security and stability within Dar al-Islam (land of Submission) cannot occur as long as Israel, a/k/a/ Dar al-Harb (Land of War) exists within the Islamic crescent. Tehran's rapprochement with Amman cannot occur as long as its unilateral peace agreement with Israel remains in force. Thus Jordanian abrogation of the agreement may occur without notice or upon the flimsiest of pretexts. Jordan sees what exists to its north - from Iran to the Mediterranean Sea - an Iranian-led and armed to the teeth coalition is intent on vanquishing Israel in the near term. Jordan, the Hashemite Kingdom, set itself up as the guardian of Islam's holiest shrines - from Mecca to Jerusalem - and over the course of recent history has lost both, the former to the Saudi's and the latter to the Israeli's. I believe this underlies King Abdullah's decision. It is an attempt to restore the Hashemite Kingdom's Islamic legitimacy and honor.

King Abdullah wants to save his kingdom - he's very aware of the near disaster his father faced in 1970 when the "Palestinians" nearly took the kingdom for their own. "Bloody September" is the root cause of the Lebanon we know today, and the Jordan. Abdullah is making sure the Palestinian's have their own state so that they don't want his."

Thus can we clearly see a palpable real-world and real-time solidification of the very appropriate "inner ring" nomenclature coined by Isralestine author Bill Salus. King Abdullah has no other option but to consign Jordan to the confederation of nations which have prophetically uttered in their native Arabic language, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”

It was in no small way that I was a little more than slightly surprised this morning to see the secular Israeli website DEBKAfile publish an article (Jordan winds down military-intelligence ties with Israel) which reiterated the primary points I'd made in the above assessment. We've "closed the loop" so to speak at the tail end of the year 2010 A.D. and beginning of the Jewish year 5771.

On a related note rgarding Psalm 83, verse 8 (YLT):

"Asshur also has joined with them; They have helped ("zĕrowa`") the children of Lot."

Asshur was and is Iraq.

The first part of the prophetic verse above begins in the present and relative to the discrete time period of 1947-2003 (i.e. Asshur also has) and tranistions to a past tense (they have helped...) in its conclusion. The "Selah" at the end of verse 8 is a musical crescendo, it is an exhaltation!

In the period of 1947 to 2003 the Iraqi military precisley fulfilled the role of Asshur as assigned by Asaph. Precisely, and specifically to a 'T'. In fact, Saddam Hussein's clan/family hailed from that former northern Iraqi/Assyrian territory. Iraqi support and direct involvement with the sons of Lot (Ammon and Moab = Jordan) and the whole Arab League's war of annihilation against Israel is precisely what Asaph was speaking to. British-trained Iraqi generals led the pan-Arabic armies in the wars of 1947-47, 1967 and 1973.

Iraq (Asshur) last struck at Israel in 2001 with Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles, and I remain open to the possibility that the past tense of Psalm 83:8b may yet be future, that Iraq may yet assist in some token manner in the coming final battlefield engagement. For that engagement I make note that both Iraqi officers and enlisted are U.S.-trained and equipped professional soldiers. They very well could provide highly-prized assistance or augmentation to Jordan's U.S.-made and trained armed forces in the final battlefield engagement.

Additional Asshur/Iraqi "zĕrowa`" provided to the "children of Lot":

Iraq provided training, logisitics, sanctuary and finance to the Abu Nidal "Palestinian" terrorist organization;

Iraq provided significant financial aid and assistance to HAMAS;

Iraq hosted the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) under Abu Abbas in Baghdad (of SS Achille Lauro/Leon Klinghoffer infamy);

Iraq paid the families of "Palestinian" suicide bomber cash rewards of $10,000 for each act of mass-murder of Jews and martyrdom. This amount was raised to $25,000 in 2002. The cash was transited directly via automobile from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan along the 10 Freeway and on to the West Bank paymaster Mahmoud Besharat.

The Iraqi Salman Pak terrorist training center specialized the terrorist arts of aircraft, ship and train hijacking, IED and VBIED production, sabotage and assassination.

My final note on this is to recognize that this is an interpretation which could only be fulfilled in this last 'end times' generation, the generation which has witnessed the budding of the Fig Tree.

Vigilance for the Holidays and Beyond

The above embedded video is proof of precisely why "We The People" must always maintain a high state of vigilance with such incompetant, out-of-touch, unelected leaders in charge of our national security.

22 December 2010: Once again the Christmas and New Year holiday season is upon us. Unlike last year when Al Qaeda attempted, and thankfully failed, to blow an American airliner out of the sky on Christmas day, this year Al Qaeda in Iraq have a standing terrorist operations order to carry out attacks against Christian churches across the globe: “All Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers are legitimate targets for the mujahedeen wherever they can reach them.” This includes the United States and Canada.

Recent AQAP terrorist plots discovered in the UK that are linked to Anwar al-AWLAKI are reported to have targets that include landmarks, public areas, shopping centers, hotels, restaurants and, last but not by any means least, our food supply. The ages of the terrorists primed to carry out these attacks are said to range from their late teens to early twenties.

The persistence of reports citing planned Mumbai-style terrorist attacks remains a primary concern for Europe and well as North America. Most recently, alerts were issued for a type of terrorist the Northeast Intelligence Network has long cited as being highly prized Al Qaeda recruits, the so-called “lily white” terrorists. This group of “white jihadists” is known to exist since two of them were recently killed while in training for their assignments by just one of the nearly one hundred C.I.A. Predator drone attacks in the northwestern Pakistani region of Waziristan this year. The two who were killed were among many “white jihadists” known to have been in training there.

So, the war goes on. Life goes on. And we each in our own way, where ever we live, work, travel and enjoy recreation and good times with family and friends in this holiday season and beyond need to be fearlessly vigilant to the Islamic enemy coming at us from any and every direction. As always, you see something, you say something. And have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Arab Muslim’s exhibit sickening delight over Israel fire: A Psalm 83 Connection?

Eschatology Today Note - 5 December 2010: I believe these fires are a deliberate preparation of the battlefield by Hezbollah for the coming war. I believe these fires, along with the words of the Muslims themselves quoted below, are directly related to the imprecatory prophecy found in Asaph's Psalm 83, particularly verses 4 and 14-15, and as they relate to the sum of the prophecy and its potential timing of ultimate fulfillment. -Sean Osborne

4 "They have said, "Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation,That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.""

14 "As the fire burns the woods,
And as the flame sets the mountains on fire,

15 So pursue them with Your tempest,
And frighten them with Your storm."

By Douglas J. Hagmann founder and director

Please pray for the safety of Israel and her people as the Muslims metaphorically fan the flames of hatred from all across the globe...

4 December 2010: In what is being described as the “most serious environmental disaster” in the history of Israel, the raging fire has caused at least 42 deaths, the evacuation of over 17 thousand people and destroyed over four million trees. According to a short statement by Israeli authorities, the fire was not a case of arson but of negligence, which is somewhat at odds with initial reports that that the fire had at least three separate points of origin that is suggestive of arson.

Regardless of the cause, the fire has been devastating – to the absolute delight of the Islamic communities in the Middle East.

Researchers of the Northeast Intelligence Network have been monitoring Arab news sources and web sites and forums sympathetic to Muslim terrorists. There have been dubious claims of responsibility for the conflagration, with the latest coming from a previously unknown group calling itself the “Lions of the Mujahideen in Palestine.” According to a statement posted on a web forum used to broadcast messages allegedly from Osama bin Laden, the group stated that they started the fire. According to the statement, the group set fire to the trees and dried brush at Mount Carmel between late Thursday and early Friday, [performing] “a holy and heroic expedition within the territory of the usurpers.”

Perhaps of equal importance consists of the Muslim response published on the forums and in response to news items, especially in the foreign press. Comments originating from all parts of the globe consist of a stomach-turning exuberance by the very people who claim their religion is one of peace. Much like the Muslims dancing in the streets in celebration of the 9/11 attacks, there is an unbridled joy among many that Israel is burning. Muslim prayers are being offered to Allah in thanks and for increased carnage, not only to Israel, but to any Arab Muslim who assists in extinguishing the fire.

The following reflect a few examples of Muslim sentiment from posters in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and even North America:

“Praise Allah for this new Holocaust!”

“Allahu Akbar! This is an effective weapon. We call on our Palestinian
brothers to set fire to all forests.”

“This fire is the result of prayers from our prisoners held in occupation
jails. The fire of Hell will be even stronger. May those Arabs who are helping
the Jews burn with them in Hell.”

“May Allah punish all Arabs who helped put down the fire.”

“Oh Allah, destroy Israel and all enemies of Islam.”

In addition to such printed reactions, there have been numerous references to the text of some Friday sermons held in mosques in Arab countries and even some in the U.S. that are metaphorically fanning the flames of hatred against Israel and the Jews. Muslim religious leaders are claiming that Israel is being punished for their “occupation,” and promise more destruction and death to come.

NOTE: Join the Facebook group “I support Israel – Fire Disaster 2010″ for updates and information (supported by but not affiliated with the Northeast Intelligence Network)

Stuxnet: Made in the USA

UPDATE 16 January 2011: Israel Tests on Worm Called Crucial in Iran Nuclear Delay

1 December 2010: Speculations on Stuxnet’s national point of origin have run as rampant as the trojan malware has within the Iranian nuclear weapons infrastructure since the discovery of the super cyber weapon by the Belarus security firm VirusBlokAda on 17 June 2010. The vast majority of those subject-matter-expert commentaries leading corporate media-driven speculations have centered on Israel and its secretive military intelligence Unit 8200 as that point of origin.

One of those so-called experts, Richard Falkenrath, a former Senior Director of Policy and Plans with the United States Office of Homeland Security, was on Bloomberg Television as recently as September 24 pointing a very accusative finger at Israel. When asked directly by the interviewer what were the chances that the United States was the nation-state of origin Falkenrath responded(at the 1:57 mark of the linked video), “It is theoretically impossible that the U.S. government did this, but in my judgment it is a very remote possibility. More likely is, frankly, Israel. That Israel did it.”

Richard Falkenrath needs to have a conversation or two with his former government peers, or at the least with the New York Times’s David E. Sanger about an article he wrote a full 17 months prior to the discovery of Stuxnet. Published by the Times on 10 January 2009 Sanger’s article, headlined “U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site,” clearly references the United States as the point of origin of Stuxnet during the last year of the administration of President George W. Bush..

Quoting Sanger’s article:

“President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials.... The White House denied that request outright, American officials said, and the Israelis backed off their plans, at least temporarily. But the tense exchanges also prompted the White House to step up intelligence-sharing with Israel and brief Israeli officials on new American efforts to subtly sabotage Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, a major covert program that Mr. Bush is about to hand off to President-elect Barack Obama.”

Stuxnet. Made in the USA.

For all of two years now the big remaining Stuxnet mystery has been hiding in plain sight, and now the operationally deceptive embedded “fingerprints” within the lines of Stuxnet’s code suggesting an Israeli origin are moot. And, for their part, the Israeli authorities don’t seem to have any problem with such misdirection exercises. The Israeli’s might even consider them to have some inherent entertainment value. From an intelligence perspective they do have that quality.

Interestingly, it was also the New York Times’s David E. Sanger who also informed the world in another article, published 29 September 2009, of a team of Symantec researcher’s discovery of a Stuxnet project string code driver (b:\myrtus\src\objfre_w2k_x86\i386\guava.pdb) that contained an apparently ingenious “paternity” reference to Israel linked to the Book of Esther. This article was published just five days after Richard Falkenrath’s accusative Bloomberg TV interview. The Book of Esther tells the story of how the Jews in ancient Elam overcame a Persian plot to annihilate them and instead turned the tables on their enemies and were granted the power to preemptively annihilate their enemies anywhere in King Xerxes realm.

It just so happens that ancient Elam is the same modern day geographical location for most of the crown jewels in the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Now that’s a brilliant touch of flair the American creators of Stuxnet should receive an award for. And now it can be said that the US has finally taken a step towards rectifying all of the acts of war Iran has committed against the US since 1979 as well the murders of our Marines in Beirut and other American heroes in Lebanon.