On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: six geese-a-laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree!

Since eggs symbolize new life, the geese stand for the six days of creation described in Genesis.

They suggest that we decorate eggs with nontoxic markers or crayons. I don’t think I’ll celebrate in quite this way, as I associate all egg decoration with Easter, but I did have eggs for breakfast this morning. Does that count?

And here’s a picture of some decorated eggs:

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree!

These are said to represent the first five books of the Old Testament, often referred to as the Pentateuch.

Today’s suggested activity is for your family to sit down and write the following on decorative strips of paper:

1. Their favorite thing that happened this Christmas season.
2. Their favorite memory of last Christmas.
3. Their favorite Christmas ever.
4. Their funniest Christmas memory.
5. One thing they hope to accomplish before next Christmas.

Then, staple the paper strips into a chain and use it as decoration in your home.

For me, as I do not live with anyone why don’t we play this online? Respond to one or more of the above either in comments, or on my G+ or FB accounts.

1. I loved going to Mass with my brother, goddaughter, and friends.
2. It was cute watching the kids from OLGC performing a Christmas play. There was a real baby playing the baby Jesus and the kids playing Joseph and Mary were so cute and loving.

3. I don’t remember which Christmas it was, but some of my favorites were when I was a kid and my cousin, Anna, and I got to pass out the presents to everyone and afterward everyone would have a big “snowball fight” using gift wrap.
4. I liked watching my cousins’ kids, Petros and Kenzie, attacking everyone in the living room with a Stomp Rocket.
5. I would like to come up with a good plan for next Advent.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: two turtle doves (and a partridge in a pear tree)!

The doves stand for the Old and New Testaments, but also may represent the doves that were required as an offering when a male child was dedicated in the Temple at the age of 12.

Isn’t 2 doves also the offering for poorer families when the male child is presented at the Temple shortly after birth? I think that’s somewhere in Leviticus… Let me look… Yes. Leviticus 12 is all about this. This offering, for a male child, would happen about 33 days after birth, after the period of purification for the mother.

In an aside, I also recently learned that turtle doves are the same as mourning doves, which is the name by which I am more familiar.

Mourning Dove

As doves represent peace, the book recommends thinking up ways to spread peace. Hmmm… perhaps a good way would be to understand the position of people who do not agree with you. Even if you don’t come to a common understanding, if you have an idea of why they believe what they believe, then you can at least have sympathy for their position. Another way might be to practice humility in your daily life. If you are in the habit of being humble, you probably will be less inclined to being stubborn or prideful and letting disagreements escalate.

What are you thoughts on how we can spread peace?