Can love survive Christmas when a very special gift goes terribly wrong?
We’ve all been in the awkward situation one time or another — receiving a gift not needed and/or wanted. You’ll laugh as well as sympathize as a woman tells her Christmas story in the video, The 12 Days of Christmas – A Tale of Avian Misery, written, directed and produced by Anomaly. [Editor’s Note: As with all media content within the On2In2™ website, this video is intended for adult audiences, not children. The content includes expletives.]
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Xavier Romero-Frias, CC BY-SA 3.0
The actual origin and meaning of the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, are uncertain, but it’s likely the lyrics were inspired by French carols and first used in a children’s ‘memory and forfeit’ game played in 18th century England. [A leader in a memory and forfeits game recited a verse that each of the players repeated, then the leader added a verse to be repeated until one of the players made a mistake. The penalty for a mistake was giving a kiss or a sweet.] The 12 Days verses typically did not include music until the now standard melody was fitted to the words by English composer Frederic Austin and published in 1909.
The festive Christian and secular traditions of the Twelve Days of Christmas, also know as ‘Twelvetide’, can be traced back to nonstop feasting and merrymaking of the Middle Ages, but are now mostly forgotten, and contemporary holiday retail marketing has created a mistaken belief that the 12 days begin prior to Christmas Day when in fact Christmas Day is considered the first day of Christmas by most Western religions and ‘Twelfth Night’ (January 5) is the traditional end of the Christmas season. Many, however, still celebrate some aspects of the Twelve Days of Christmas, including December 26 (St. Stephen’s Day, Wren Day, Boxing Day) and January 5 (Twelfth Night).
References/Information:
The Twelve Days of Christmas, Wikipedia
Everything You Need To Know About Boxing Day by Claire Suddath, Time Magazine (December 26, 2013) It’s been a national holiday in England, Wales, Ireland and Canada since 1871, and no one seems sure what they’re celebrating.
A History of the Twelfth Night Cake by Sam Bilton, English Heritage website (January 4, 2016)
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare is a tale of unrequited love, both hilarious and heartbreaking, and one Shakespeare’s most popular plays. Performing now until February 24, 2018 at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England
Sit back, relax and watch something a little different – FREE & On-Demand On2In2™ Holiday Movie Channel
Love is sort of messy — a complicated, provocative subject, and that’s what makes the FREE To WATCH On2In2™ video collection, Finding Love, engaging, funny, and sometimes troubling.
If Christmas shopping is a struggle for you this year,
check out the On2In2™ SHOP page for a some gifting inspiration.
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The feature image is a still shot from the video “The 12 Days of Christmas – A Tale of Avian Misery”
