The Twelve Days of Christmas

One of the most popular Christmas songs we have is “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. The song we know today was written by Frederic Austin in 1909 but was secular in nature. However there is a historical Christian Twelve Days of Christmas that is unrelated to the song but rather related to the day of Christ’s birth and the arrival of the Magi. The exact date of Christ’s birth was has been lost to history. However, by the fourth century we find references to two dates that were widely recognized as the birthday: December 25 in the western Roman Empire and January 6 in the East (especially in Egypt and Asia Minor). The modern Armenian church continues to celebrate Christmas on January 6 but for most Christians December 25 would be celebrated. January 6 eventually came to be known as the Feast of the Epiphany, commemorating the arrival of the Magi in Bethlehem. The 12 days between these dates, Christ’s birth and the arrival of the Magi, would later be adopted as the sacred and festive season celebrated by some in the Catholic Church as the Twelve days of Christmas.

It is unclear exactly how the day of the Magi arrival was determined but in regard to Christ’s birth there are two possible sources of the date. There is some evidence that the date mirrored certain Pagan holidays related to the Winter Solstice but the evidence is not convincing. More likely, the birth date is related to the date of Christ’s conception which tradition held was on the same calendar date as the cruxifiction. Around 200 AD Tertullian of Carthage reported the calculation that the 14th of Nisan (the day of the crucifixion according to the Gospel of John) in the year Jesus died was equivalent to March 25 in the Roman (solar) calendar. March 25 is nine months before December 25 and it was later recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation—the commemoration of Jesus’ conception. In the East the dates of Jesus’ conception and death were also linked. But instead of working from the 14th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, the easterners used the 14th of the first spring month (Artemisios) in their local Greek calendar—April 6 to us. April 6 is, of course, exactly nine months before January 6—the eastern date for Christmas. In any event, by 325 Emperor Constantine decreed that December 25 would be the date to celebrate the birth of Christ and it has been celebrated since then on that day in most of the believing world with the arrival of the Magi celebrated on January 6 and the 12 days in between by some as the Twelve Days of Christmas feast days.

⁰