Feast of the Holy Innocents
Childermas, the fourth day of Christmas, starlings
The Virgin and Child Surrounded by the Holy Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens
You may remember the bible story: The Magi visit King Herod to ask where they can find the King of the Jews. Herod advises them to go to Bethlehem and then to return to him with a report. In a dream, they are warned to avoid Herod, and so after visiting the Christ Child they leave without ever seeing Herod again. Herod then gives the order to kill all boys two and under. Those slaughtered babies are considered the first Christian martyrs.
Herod was a wicked king, his reign one of intrigue and terror. He killed his father-in-law, several of his ten wives, and at least two of his own sons. His son, Herod Antipas, had John the Baptist beheaded and Jesus crucified.
On The Fourth Day of Christmas
my true love gave to me, four calling birds…to represent the four Gospels/four Evangelists, Matthew Mark, Luke, and John.
Calling birds, or is it colly birds? Well, apparently, in the original, it is colly. The Twelve Days of Christmas was first published around 1780 in a book called Mirth Without Mischief, though the song had probably been around in the oral tradition for quite some time before that.
According to Webster’s new Universal Unabridged Dictionary in the deluxe second edition, given to me by the fabulous Janet McGinn (God rest her soul) many years ago, colly means, “to blacken as with soot or grime…the black grime of coal or burnt wood.”
So those colly birds could be blackbirds, or starlings, or rooks. Maybe the shiny cowbird or the great-tailed grackle. Could the colly be a raven? What blackbird would you give your true love? Not a raven, surely.
Maybe a Brewer’s Blackbird, though its song is a little screechy so maybe not…
Possibly a starling…starlings can learn songs, as opposed to being restricted to instinctive sounds, and the different species of starlings are lovely, even the plainer ones, with their iridescent greens and blues…
Of course the most magical thing about starlings, I think, are their murmurations, like this one from the Newport Wetlands Natures Reserve in Wales.
And finally, a song about starlings and blackbirds, snow and love from Josh Ritter.