Twelve days of Christmas
Day One
On the first day of Christmas,
my true love gave to me...
A Partridge in a Pear Tree
The partridge in a pear tree is JESUS CHRIST, the Son of GOD, whose birthday we celebrate on December 25, the first day of Christmas. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge that feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, recalling the expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem;
"Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered you under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but you would not have it so...." (Luke 13:34)
