Sunday, December 26, 2010

On the 1st Day of Christmas...

...my true love gave to me
a partridge in a pear tree!
In Germany families put up their Christmas decorations a few days before Christmas and then leave them up until 3 Kings Day, or Epiphany. The song "The 12 Days of Christmas" refer to the time between Christmas and Epiphany.
I was doing some research to see when the days start (on the 25th or 26th) and I found a website with a discussion about what each of the days in the song means. According to Catholic tradition the song was a mnemonic device to teach the catechism to kids. While the meanings proposed by tradition may not be the real origin of the song, I really loved the ideas and wanted to share each day with you here. So, there will be a freebie each day representing the "gift" given on that day and a Christian explanation of that day.
So... A partridge in a pear tree refers to Jesus the Messiah being the ultimate gift and a protector of His people. The scripture reference to support this theory is Luke 13:34, "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered you under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but you would not have it so . . . ."
Click here or the image above to download today's freebie.

10 comments:

  1. This is so cool! I'm going to share this with my mom, she's really going to get a kick out of it! I had no idea the song had Catholic roots. :)

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  2. Just a quick note to let you know that a link to this post will be placed on CraftCrave in the DigiFree category today [27 Dec 01:00am GMT]. Thanks, Maria

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  3. Great -- I'd heard there were Christian meaning behind the song, this will be fun and educational Thank you.

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  4. It won't download. But I'll check bad later.

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  5. Bad links are the best way to get comments!

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  6. Thank you so much for this post. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in CBH Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, under the Page 6 post on Dec. 27, 2010. Thanks again.

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  7. Thank you for this series - you have done a beautiful job--both in design and in the research. i had the explanations a long time ago, but it's in a file "somewhere"! Now i have the graphics and the explanation of each one all in one place for quick reference!

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  8. Hi!
    I'm just playing with my Christmas pix and I tried to open the Day 1 "Partridge" zip and it will not open. The rest of the zips are just fine. I wonder if there's any chance of getting another zip of this file. I'd really like to have the entire set.
    Thanks.
    Carla

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