“On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Four Collie Birds . . .”

Yes, that’s right!  All these years you’ve been singing “calling birds” when it’s really colly birds.  The verse is actually a corruption of the English word colly or collie. So, we are referring to “four colly birds” or four collie birds (the words to the song were probably written before the creation of the dictionary, so the spelling of old words tends to be flexible).

But let’s get back to the religious interpretations since its meaning relates to the calling birds, before we continue to discuss the black birds. The “calling” birds as the Four Gospels: 1) Matthew, 2) Mark, 3) Luke, and 4) John, which proclaim the Good News of God’s reconciliation of the world.

What is a colly bird? It is a black bird. In England a coal mine is called a colliery and colly or collie is a derivation of this and means black like coal. For a long time in England, blackbirds have been referred to as both blackbirds (as in the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence) and colly birds as in The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Even in Tudor England these birds went by two different names so it is not so unusual that there would be some confusion three centuries and a couple of continents later.

While the name blackbird migrated beyond England, the name collie bird remained behind in England where, even there, it tended to diminish in use over the centuries. Today, many published versions of the song in the U.S. and Australia give the birds’ name as calling birds rather than collie birds.

So, the song is really saying… four crows.  But, who wants a crow for Christmas?  They did! You see, blackbird was considered a delicacy. In the children’s song “Sing a Song of Sixpence” there are 24 blackbirds backed in a pie.  Pies seem to be a real gourmet food in the peak of The Twelfth Night days and were often a sign of status and competition among the wealthy.

Dining during this time was a form of entertainment, with food presentations having fireworks, and surprises coming out of them.  But, the grandest pie of all was said to be in the year 1770 for Sir Henry Grey at a Twelfth Night celebration in London.  This pie is said to be 9 feet in circumference.

The filling was composed of two bushels of flour, two woodcocks, two turkeys, two rabbits, two ox tongues, four geese, four ducks, four partridges, six pigeons, seven blackbirds and twenty lbs. of butter!  The pie weighed 168 lbs. and was wheeled into the dining room.  Imagine the cholesterol?!

Adding spice to your life,

Lia

Martha Stewart Weddings

On the third day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me, Three French Hens . . .

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Two Turtle Doves . . .

On the first day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me, A Partridge in a Pear Tree . . .