Drummers Drumming

Can you hear the twelve drummers drumming?

Today is the twelfth day of Christmas, but you probably won’t hear the drummers or listen to the eleven pipers. As for Lords a-Leaping, Ladies Dancing, or Maids a-milking—I doubt if there are too many of those around here. It’s too cold to leap and dance; the milk is probably frozen. There might be a few swans over at Kenwood Country Club. (One attacked my father on the fifth fairway years ago.) There are more than six geese at Hidden Valley Golf Club, but I doubt if they are laying eggs right now. (The golfers and Greens keeper would request you not gift them any more geese, please.)

I’ll be glad to take those five golden rings. Can you add a diamond or two?

The four calling birds come to my feeder daily. (For those who wonder, a calling bird is simply a songbird. Some believe the word was originally “Cully bird” in reference to the goshawk of that name in The Once and Future King.) The only French hens I see are in the freezer section at Kroger. I’ve not seen a turtle dove recently, but I have a few mourning doves at that songbird feeder, and a box turtle lives near my creek.

I don’t have a partridge or a pear tree, but I did recently plant a Hawthorne Tree. Please send me a first edition of The House of the Seven Gables instead.

While you are at the bookstore looking for The House, pick up a copy of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. At one time, the holiday (Epiphany) represented the arrival of the wise men at the nativity and the end of the season. Huge parties filled Twelfth Night. Such is the scenario in the Shakespeare play.

Churches still celebrate Epiphany, usually on the Sunday after Christmas. If Christmas is on a Saturday, Epiphany is on December 26, not January 5. So, even in the churches, the 12 days seem to have gone the way of 8 track tapes and the pony express.

I suppose one might say that our 12 days are celebrated before Christmas as we rush to the mall, search the Internet for gifts, and attend holiday parties. Nobody calls New Year’s Eve the 7th Day of Christmas, although some might just see those swans after a few drinks. I guess the after-Christmas sales go on for at least 12 days, but the pre-Christmas marketing begins at least 12 weeks before Christmas!

I guess I’m just old-fashioned, but I always leave my halls decked and my outdoor lights glowing until after Twelfth Night. So if you drive by my house and think I need a calendar, just stop and listen. I’ll be playing “The Little Drummer Boy” on my piano. Like Hawthorne’s friend, Thoreau, I march to a different drummer.