6 days to go..
And it looks like it's going to be a warm Christmas Day in Melbourne according to the weather forecast - although this may change as the day gets closer.
And yes, I'm aware I've missed out several verses of the 12 days of Christmas as I had the most busy and frantic weekend of partying and present-buying so noooo time to blog. I hope you'll forgive me condensing 3 days of missed blogging into one, here goes..
5 Golden Rings
So the five golden rings in this stanza refer to five ring-necked pheasants, a dish that was sure to be served at some of the king or queen's Twelfth Night feasts during the Twelve Days of Christmas celebrations.
Unlike the four collie birds in the previous stanza who just had their name changed to a different, and non-existent, species of bird, the five rings in this stanza have, in singers' and illustrators' minds, changed from five ring-necked pheasants to five pieces of jewelry. While gold rings for one's fingers have been around since ancient times, the word ring, even today, has different meanings. Today we refer to the platform on which boxers fight and wrestlers perform as a ring, a criminal conspiracy as a ring, jewelry for fingers, toes, ears, noses and belly buttons are all referred to as rings. Given the versatility of the word ring in today's language it is not unusual to discover that our sixteenth century ancestors used the shortened term ring to describe a ring-necked pheasant as well as jewellery for their fingers.
I have found a Christmas game where you can find the 6 geese and much more apparently.
Please refer to the craft tab above and print the picture.
According to some believers, the 7 swans-a-swimming represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, i.e. 1) prophecy, 2) ministry, 3) teaching, 4) exhortation, 5) giving, 6) leading, and
7) compassion
Something to reflect on?
And S-T? What has he been up to?
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