Christmas Day 4

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me … four calling birds.

Did you know that, according to Brownielocks.com, we have all been singing the wrong words to this verse of the Twelve Days of Christmas? Here is what the website says:

Four Calling (Colly) Birds

Yes, that’s right! All these years you’ve been singing “calling birds” when the reality is, it’s colly birds. So what are these birds? A colly bird is a European black bird. Colly means black. It’s my view that it’s the word “coal + ie” said with a little accent. Therefore, a dark black bird looked like black coal and was called a “coalie” or “Colly Bird.”

So, the song is really saying … four crows. But, who wants a crow for Christmas? They did! You see … back in the Medieval days, blackbird was considered a delicacy. In the children’s song “Sing a Song of Sixpence,” there are 24 blackbirds baked 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 pounds of butter! The pie weighed 168 pounds and was wheeled into the dining room. Imagine the cholesterol?

I don’t know about you, but I am very happy NOT to eat blackbird pie. I wonder if it tastes like chicken? All exotic protein foods seem to be described as tasting like chicken. I guess I will never know.

Theologically, the four calling birds represent the four Gospels --- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. If you have never read the Bible, or if you have just never read any of the Gospels, I would recommend starting with John. It is the most moving of the four, written in a much different style than the other three.

Aside from investigating some history about the fourth day of Christmas, I spent the rest of my "fourth day" working at home, attending a magic show at our local library (given by The Amazing Zacchini, a friend of Katherine the Great), and exchanging gifts with our friends in Uncasville. My husband made ham salad sandwiches for supper, too, from the leftover Christmas ham. I love it when men cook!

Hope your “fourth day” went well. As Christmas continues, be merry!

Photo of Rusty Blackbirds by John James Audubon was taken from ArtPrintCollection.com.