Friday, December 17, 2010

Twelve Days of Christmas - Four Calling Birds

On the fourth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Four calling birds
Most think the line goes "four calling birds"
when in fact it is four colly birds.
Colly is a dialect word meaning black.
It refers to the European black bird

Some think the four colly birds
refer to the four gospels and/or evangelists
Matthew Mark Luke and John

Eight more days until Christmas.

5 comments:

Theresa MacNaughton said...

Wow - I never knew this! What a fascinating fact. Obviously, I am way behind here. I will be playing catch-up...backwards. :) Have a happy weekend! Theresa

Rue said...

Oh! You find out the best info! I had no idea about that line.

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Interesting! Did not know that about "colly" birds before.

Merry ME said...

I seriously never knew this about "Colly" birds!
Thanks for the info.

Lorena G. Sims said...

Yes, that's interesting! all these time, I thought it was calling birds lol.