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?

The first day of Christmas is, of course, Christmas Day. Don’t let all the stores and advertisements tell you different! And it lasts until the 12th day of Christmas, which is the eve of Epiphany.

This year, I decided to celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas in a couple different ways. First, I’m going to be “giving” them as a present to my priest/best friend by doing different things for him in the style of the song. You can read more about that on my other blog. Second, I’m celebrating them more traditionally according to a book that I have, “Holiday Inspirations” by Better Homes and Gardens.

The book states that “The 12 Days of Christmas” is an English counting song reputed to have been established in the 1500s as a coded catechism for teaching the Catholic faith. They tell you how to make cute, themed gift boxes for each of the days, but I have neither the time nor the resources to make these. Plus, who would I pick to give them to? But, thankfully, there’s also different activities which can be done to symbolize each day.

The first day of Christmas is “A Partridge in a Pear Tree,” and they suggest celebrating with a themed meal. While partridge is rather difficult to find, my family and I had turkey for our Christmas dinner, and I think that totally counts. We are also supposed to have pears and cheese, along with other fruits and wine/sparkling juice or tea. However, the one pear I had in my fridge was all mushy and there were no grocery stores open on the way to my parents’, so it was basically just the turkey.

Technically, the song has us giving the partridge in a pear tree <em>every day, so I’m sure I can have my pears and apples some other time during this Christmas season and have it “count.” 🙂

The book explains that, “The pear tree is said to symbolize the cross; the partridge, Jesus Christ, because a mother partridge risks her own life to save her chicks by luring predators away from the nest.”