The "TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS" is an English Christmas carol
that enumerates a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each of the
twelve days of Christmas.
The twelve days in the song are the twelve days starting Christmas Day,
or in some traditions, the day after Christmas (December 26) (Boxing Day or St.
Stephen's Day, as being the feast day of St. Stephen Protomartyr) to the day
before Epiphany, or the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6, or the Twelfth Day).
The Twelfth Night is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the
evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the
Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a
time of merrymaking."
Currently, the
twelve days and nights are celebrated in widely varying ways around the world.
For example, some give gifts only on Christmas Day, some only on Twelfth Night, and some each of the twelve
nights, with each day of the Twelve Days representing a wish for a
corresponding month of the new year.
The "Twelve Days of Christmas" is a cumulative song, meaning
that each verse is built on top of the previous verses. There are twelve
verses, each describing a gift given by "my true love" on one of the
twelve days of Christmas ...and so forth, until the last verse:
TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
