What used to happen on the fourth day of Christmas…….?
There was a time when people weren’t still queuing for the Boxing Day sales or returning their child’s Christmas present that had stopped working by the time the Monarch’s Speech started. Legend has it that Marden folk would have sat back and welcomed yet another gift from their true love – in this case four calling birds to add to the trio of French hens, a couple of turtle doves and the partridge they’d already received. Seven swimming swans and six cacophonous geese were still to come.
Clearly there must have been a period in our history when birds featured highly and were thought to be desirable things to have (was that when the RSPB started, I wonder?).
Why? The explanation dates back to the period after the first King Charles had been beheaded. The country’s political base had shifted from palace to parliament and the Catholic religion banned in favour of Protestantism. So, from 1558 until 1829 Catholics had to practise their faith in secret or, as in this case, in plain sight.
The words to the song (shown above, the first printed edition (Anonymous 1780). Wikipedia commons (17.11.25)) were a kind of handbook for teaching the faith without being open about it. I suppose it is an indication that birds did indeed feature more prominently in the everyday lives of people back them. The Partridge in the Pear Tree symbolised God himself (a partridge is said to sacrifice itself to save its clutch of chicks). Two turtle doves represent the Old and New Testaments, while three French hens stood for faith, hope and love. The four songsters in question were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Indeed, one can see why God may have rested on the seventh day of creation as the first six had been likened to six geese a-laying – have you seen the size of a goose egg?
One wonders, though, if modern knowledge hasn’t introduced a few inconsistencies with Christian teaching into the intended meaning. Four singing birds in late December, for example, are likely to include Robin and Dunnock.
The robin is fiercely territorial and will attack and drive off any ‘foreign’ robin that dares enter its territory seeking food – hardly an act of love or charity. Male dunnocks meanwhile are well known for their habit of coveting their neighbour’s partner (oxen and asses don’t come into it).
And what about that other modern Boxing Day tradition (no, not cold turkey and chips) the Boxing Day Shoot? Does it still exist hereabouts? There is no conflict with clay pigeons. But killing partridges, and any other sentient being, for fun, surely, is a different matter?
Ray Morris, Marden Wildlife
Website: https://mardenwildlife.org.uk
Photograph by Nigel Witham