Okay, I’ll come right out and admit it. This one had me stumped. “Three French hens.” Seriously? Three hens? Why French ones? (Apparently the song itself is probably French in origin, so why specify the country when you’re living IN the country?)
And why something so bland and mundane after the rapturous “Two turtle doves”? We already had partridges and pear trees in the first verse, so I would have thought that the ‘food’ part of the gift was covered. (The silly section of my brain is saying “Would you like eggs with that?” right now…) Maybe the ‘true love’ was imparting the thought that the raptures of devoted love aren’t enough to meet the practicalities of daily living. Let’s face it. Three hens generally means three eggs a day – one for each meal. (Maybe not enough for two people to live off, but when you combine it with a pear or two, you might survive…)
Being practical makes sense to me, actually. Give me pragmatism any time, I think. People often tell me I’m pragmatic. (Hopefully they see it as a good trait! I certainly choose to take it as a compliment…) Super-organised is another word I get a lot. (Again, I’d prefer to see the positive side of that than the all-too-obvious negative I know that it generally manifests as! But back to my topic…)
When reading up on the song, I discovered that tomorrow’s was actually changed. It’s now ‘four calling birds’ but it used to be ‘four colly birds’ – otherwise known as blackbirds. And I’m mentioning it now because it’s going to take me at LEAST a day to think up what to write about them!!! So if I don’t post ‘til late tomorrow, you’ll know the reason why. Wish me luck in my ponders! And til then, Merry Christmas Day 3 style, all!