#The lyrics meaning is that the gift of the 5 rings represents the five books of the Old Testament known as the Torah and Pentateuch.

[godestof3worlds]

On The 5th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me... FIVE GOLDEN RINGS

Ah, so it’s going to be one of those days, I guess. My brain is running around with so many thoughts I can’t shut it off. I sigh before I get out bed and look in the mirror to fix my moustache. Once my moustache is acceptable enough for a walk around the castle, I leave my room.

My room was near the princess, so I went to go check hers out first. I typed in the code, and checked on her. Since the battle, she’s been having trouble sleeping, especially with the fight with Haggar and realizing she was Altean. She's also having the pressure of trying to be the perfect diplomat and try to widen the coalition. She reminds me of her mother, someone who was strong willed and did many amazing things for her people.

I smile a little at the thought of the queen. I walk out her room and move to the nearest paladin’s room. They’re not that far from the princess’ and my own chambers, just a couple of turns and you are in the same hallway as the humans.

Hunk is closest, and that is the first paladin I check in. I type out the code, and see the yellow paladin as the door swishes open. He's tangled in his blankets as usual as he snores. He reminds me of Gyrgan. He was the kindest paladin, a leg that kept everybody up. He was somebody who preferred to eat than fight, someone who only fought if there was no peaceful resolution, similar to the current yellow paladin.

I leave his room and cross the room to the green paladin’s room, Pidge’s. I again type the code and it opens. It seems to be one of those nights where number five was actually sleeping in her bed. Her room was a mess, a contrast from the original’s room, Trigel. She was always organized, saying that we weren’t some type of savage who lived in a dumpster. She was very intelligent, just like Pidge, except she always loved nature, found it comforting even. I smirk at the contrast between the two.

I leave her room and move to the next one, Lance’s. I repeated the same code as I did for the other’s room before the door swished open and I found Lance sleeping with his sleep mask placed on his skin. He seemed to be replica of the last blue paladin, Blaytz. He was a ladies man, someone who charmed any female that had a heartbeat. He always tried to look his best and had a similar routine as Lance. I laugh softly with the thought if those two actually met.

I leave his room and move to the last paladin, Keith. I entered the code and saw the red paladin asleep. Usually, ever since Shiro disappeared, he’s either awake searching for him, or training non-stop. It's a little concerning, but it wasn’t something I haven’t seen. Alfor was the same way if any paladin was missing or injured. Shiro told me his plan he had on number four, wanting him to lead Voltron if anything happened to him. I'll think Keith will be a great leader once he learns to talk with his team more, and stops running into things headfirst all the time.

I back out the room and start to make my way back to my room as my mind starts to drift off to Zarkon before he was corrupted. He was a great leader, always listening to others and making sure that everybody survived, just like Shiro. I hope he doesn’t turn corrupted like Zarkon and starts trying to kill everybody. It's a horrible thought process to be thinking about before bed, but that may just happen.

I walk into my room and hope that I can quiet my mind so I can sleep. Instead, I am left awake for about a varga thinking about the paladins of old before sleeping a dreamless sleep.

[theconservativebrief]

It might seem unbelievable given that the “Christmas creep” now begins before Halloween, but the true Christmas season actually starts on Christmas Day itself. That’s right: December 25 marks the official start of the 12 days of Christmas, the Christian tradition that shares its name with a relentlessly stick-in-your-head Christmas carol.

Here are a few things you may not know about the song and the season.

The 12 days of Christmas is the period that in Christian theology marks the span between the birth of Christ and the coming of the Magi, the three wise men. It begins on December 25 (Christmas) and runs through January 6 (the Epiphany, sometimes also called Three Kings’ Day). The four weeks preceding Christmas are collectively known as Advent, which begins four Sundays before Christmas and ends on December 24.

Some families choose to mark the 12-day period by observing the feast days of various saints (including St. Stephen on December 26) and planning daily Christmas-related activities, but for many, after December 25 things go back to business as usual.

“The 12 Days of Christmas” is also a Christmas carol in which the singer brags about all the cool gifts they received from their “true love” during the 12 days of Christmas. Each verse builds on the previous one, serving as a really effective way to annoy family members on road trips.

The version most people are familiar with today begins with this verse:

On the first day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

A partridge in a pear tree.

The song then adds a gift for each day, building on the verse before it, until you’re reciting all 12 gifts together:

Day 2: two turtle doves

Day 3: three French hens

Day 4: four calling birds

Day 5: five gold rings

Day 6: six geese a-laying

Day 7: seven swans a-swimming

Day 8: eight maids a-milking

Day 9: nine ladies dancing

Day 10: 10 lords a-leaping

Day 11: 11 pipers piping

Day 12: 12 drummers drumming

The history of the carol is somewhat murky. The earliest known version first appeared in a 1780 children’s book called Mirth With-out Mischief. (A first edition of that book sold for $23,750 at a Sotheby’s auction in 2014, but you can also buy a digital copy on Amazon.) Some historians think the song could be French in origin, but most agree it was designed as a “memory and forfeits” game, in which singers tested their recall of the lyrics and had to award their opponents a “forfeit” — a kiss or a favor of some kind — if they made a mistake.

Many variations of the lyrics have existed at different points. Some mention “bears a-baiting” or “ships a-sailing”; some name the singer’s mother as the gift giver instead of their true love. Early versions list four “colly” birds, an archaic term meaning black as coal (blackbirds, in other words). And some people theorize that the five gold rings actually refer to the markings of a ring-necked pheasant, which would align with the bird motif of the early verses.

In any case, the song most of us are familiar with today comes from an English composer named Frederic Austin; in 1909, he set the melody and lyrics (including changing “colly” to “calling”) and added as his own flourish the drawn-out cadence of “five go-old rings.”

A popular theory that’s made the internet rounds is that the lyrics to “The 12 Days of Christmas” are coded references to Christianity; it posits that the song was written to help Christians learn and pass on the tenets of their faith while avoiding persecution. Under that theory, the various gifts break down as follows, as the myth-debunking website Snopes explained:

2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments

3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues

4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists

5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the “Pentateuch,” which gives the history of man’s fall from grace.

6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation

7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments

8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes

9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit

10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments

11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles

12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle’s Creed

The partridge in the pear tree, naturally, represents Jesus Christ.

This theory seems tailor-made for circulation via chain emails, but it actually makes little sense once you examine it. Snopes has a great explanation of the many, many holes in its logic. The most egregious: First, the song’s gifts have nothing to do with their Christian “equivalents,” so the song is basically useless as a way to remember key pillars of the faith. And second, if Christians were so restricted from practicing their faith that they had to conceal messages in a song, they also wouldn’t be able to celebrate Christmas in the first place — much less sing Christmas carols.

The late historian William Studwell, known for his Christmas carol expertise, also refuted the coded message idea. Via a Northern Illinois University news release:

First, Catholics of that era were not terribly persecuted, so there would have been little need for their teachings to have been secretive. Also, the breezy, bouncy nature of the tune hardly fits with the character of the church at that time. Finally, neither Studwell, nor any other reputable researcher, has ever found a definitive explanation of what each of the 12 gifts in the song would have correlated to in the Catholic catechism.

Sorry to spoil your dinner party fun fact; while I’m at it, I might as well tell you “Ring Around the Rosie” isn’t about the Black Plague, either.

To calculate the cost of all the gifts in “The 12 Days of Christmas,” I’ll turn to the PNC financial services group’s annual Christmas Price Index, which PNC has been putting out since 1984 (and which occasionally makes its way into school lesson plans). The index calculates the cost of all the gifts in the song based on current market rates; 2018’s total comes to a hefty $39,094.93, or $170,609.46 if you count each mention of an item separately (which would amount to 364 gifts in all) — up 1.2 percent from last year.

PNC Financial Services Group

The takeaway: Swans are damn expensive (at $1,875 each/$13,125 for all seven) but at least stayed the same price as last year, while the cost of the five gold rings ($750 total) is down 9.1 percent from last year, due to “less demand and fluctuations in gold prices throughout 2018,” per PNC. No matter the cost, though, actually giving someone all this stuff is probably not a great idea; just think of all the bird poo.

The structure of “The 12 Days of Christmas” lends itself easily to parodies, of which there have been many. There’s Jeff Foxworthy’s redneck version, Twisted Sister’s heavy metal take, and, of course, a Muppets version (featuring John Denver):

[embedded content]

There’s also a 12 days of Christmas diet of sorts, which the Atlantic’s Olga Khazan attempted in 2013. She calculated the calories in a serving of each bird mentioned in the song, and offset them with the calories burned by the various activities (milking, leaping, etc.). Turns out all that poultry is somehow less indulgent than the typical American holiday meal. She sums up:

If you ate all of the birds in one day, including the pheasant pie, but not including all the trimmings for the other dishes, and subtracted the energy you expended milking, dancing, leaping, and drumming, you’d have consumed 2,384 net calories. That’s really not bad, considering the average American Thanksgiving dinner adds up to about 4,500 calories.

It seems even more reasonable, relatively speaking, when you consider that if you wanted to burn off your meal by just singing its namesake tune, you’d have to make it all the way through roughly 300 times — about 17 and a half hours of caroling. And that’s a gift we doubt anyone would welcome.

Original Source -> The 12 Days of Christmas: the story behind the holiday’s most annoying carol

via The Conservative Brief

[rucbarthatbowtiesarecooldw]

December 17th Christmas Devotional

Luke 1:30-31

And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.

When Joseph Went to Bethlehem

1. When Joseph went to Bethlehem, I think he took great care To place his tools and close his shop and leave no shavings there. He urged the donkey forward then, with Mary on its back, And carried bread and goat cheese in a little linen sack.

2. I think there at the busy inn that he was meek and mild And awed to be the guardian of Mary's sacred child. Perhaps all through the chilly hours he smoothed the swaddling bands, And Jesus felt the quiet strength of Joseph's gentle hands.

3. And close beside the manger bed, he dimmed the lantern's light And held the little Jesus close upon that holy night.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

by Vickey Pahnke CES teacher, songwriter, producer

The story goes that from 1558 until 1829 people in England were not allowed to practice their faith openly. During this era, the song ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ was written as a subtle way of celebrating Christ’s birth in public without risk of prosecution. The song’s lyrics had a hidden meaning known only to members of the church, each element of the twelve days offering code meaning for a religious reality.

1. The partridge in a pear tree stood for Jesus Christ

2. The two turtledoves stood for the Old and New Testaments

3. Three French hens stood for faith, hope, and charity.

4. The four calling birds were the four gospels

5. The five gold rings represented the first five books of the Old Testament (the Law).

6. The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation

7. Seven swans a-swimming signified the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit.

8. The eight maids a-milking represented the beatitudes.

9. The Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Spirit (see the fifth chapter of Galatians).

10. Ten lords a-leaping were the Ten Commandments.

11. Eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.

12. Twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles Creed.

Isn’t that fascinating? Whether or not the story is based on true occurrence, hearing this story gave me pause to reflect on the song. Each element of the lyrics offers a positive reason to celebrate Christianity. With the deeper meaning to contemplate, the song becomes a lighthearted anthem of praise and a tribute to those who dared celebrate, in song, their gratitude for Christ. I do believe I will more fully enjoy the tune from now on.

Aren’t we blessed to be able to worship the Savior without fear of harm? Maybe we should stand a little taller and be more open in sharing the gospel with those who don’t yet have the truth. Aren’t we blessed to have the scriptures to read and ponder? Maybe we should spend a bit more time reading those words that are openly available to us. Don’t we have somewhat to learn and practice in order to truly understand faith, hope, and love? Would it not be good to become better acquainted with the fruits of the Spirit, and be a better example of them?

There are only a few days before December 25th. I think I’ll listen to the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” a few times and celebrate the blessings of being able to openly and wholeheartedly celebrate! How about you?