Coffee Cup Conversation - January 14, 2011

Elderton Borough will hold a special meeting on Monday night to approve a new ordinance to protect property owners. A new ordinance enacted by county planners puts property owners in municipalities that do not have zoning ordinances at the mercy of the county. If Elderton does not approve their own ordinance, the county ordinance would have prohibited renovations of the Elderton elementary and high school complex as proposed by the architect and approved by the ASD school board.

She can talk! Oprah Winfrey was on a tour earlier this month. She was interviewed for 50 minutes. It took her 25 minutes to answer one question! The press reported not about what she was saying but rather how long it took her to say it!

Will Bob Bower run for county commissioner? Only his closest friends are scratching their heads. Whatever decision he is making, he is keeping it quiet for the next few weeks.

Candidates planning to run for election this spring should consider one major question: How do you plan on reducing taxes? Tax payers are not happy with holding the line on taxes… they want them reduced. Those candidates answering that question will have my vote.

Howard Jack is retiring after 36 years of service to Manor Township. There are already two people who plan to run for his seat. We will probably see more challengers emerge as the word is spread of his retirement. Look for him to stay as the appointed municipality representative to Town and Country Transit. No one else wants the job.

The Origin of the 12 Days of Christmas

We are all familiar with the Christmas song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” To most of us, it is a delightful nonsense rhyme set to music. But it had a quite serious purpose when it was written.

It is a good deal more than just a repetitious melody with pretty phrases and a list of strange gifts.

Catholics in England during the period 1558 to 1829, when Parliament finally emancipated Catholics in England, were prohibited from ANY practice of their faith by law - private or public. It was a crime to BE a Catholic.

“The Twelve Days of Christmas” was written in England as one of the “catechism songs” to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith. It was a memory aid at a time when to be caught with anything in writing indicating adherence to the Catholic faith could not only get you imprisoned, it could get you hanged, drawn and quartered - a rather peculiar and ghastly punishment that perhaps was never practiced anywhere else.

Hanging, drawing and quartering involved hanging a person by the neck until they had almost, but not quite, suffocated to death. The party was then taken down from the gallows, and disemboweled while still alive. While the entrails were still lying on the street (where the executioners stomped all over them), the victim was tied to four large farm horses, and literally torn into five parts - one to each limb and the remaining torso.

The songs gifts are hidden meanings to the teachings of the faith. The “true love” mentioned in the song doesn’t refer to an earthly suitor, it refers to God Himself. The “me” who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge which feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, much in memory of the expression of Christ’s sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: (“Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered thee under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but thou wouldst not have it so…”)

The other symbols mean the following:

1 Partridge in a Pear Tree = Jesus Christ, Son of God

2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments

3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues

4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists

5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the “Pentateuch”, which gives the history of man’s fall from grace.

6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation

7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments

8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes

9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit

10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments

11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles

12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle’s Creed