Is It “Four Calling Birds” or “Four Colly Birds”? The “Twelve Days Of Christmas” Learning Takes Place Amongst Redditors

by Maryjane

During the Christmas period, people come together for a night of fun and celebration. The song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is always among the songs being sung or played.

Each person would select one of the twelve days and then sing the line related to that day. One aspect of the song - whether the birds described on the fourth day of Christmas are "calling birds" or "colly birds" - has always been the subject of acrimonious debate.

Yes, the rendition of the song consistently brought out chuckles from the children and adults. But since nobody knew the word colly and calling made intuitive sense (calling birds must be birds that "call out" in song, or songbirds), the majority of people were convinced that the correct name was "calling birds."

The song's lyrics are actually "four colly birds." And yes, it follows that the appropriate term must be "colly birds"!

Debating this will all be for nothing. Basic research reveals that both expressions are accurate based on current usage, despite the fact that "colly birds" predates "calling birds" by more than a century.

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" was first printed in the book Mirth Without Mischief around 1780, probably after years of oral tradition.

More info: Reddit, blogs.loc.gov

The TodayILearned Title

Are the birds described on the fourth day of Christmas “calling birds” or “colly birds”?

blogs.loc.gov

The Twelve Days of Christmas: A Traditional Song, an arrangement by Frederic Austin published in 1909, gave rise to the song's familiar tune and popularized the poem's current wording. The sentence in question is changed to "four calling birds" in Austin's text.

The expression "four calling birds" was first used by Austin (or he was among the first to use it) and it took some time for it to spread. Redditors had a fun time in the comments as they aired their views about the debate.

Here are a bunch of their comments below.

What is haunting us to this day

The song has a lot of birds

Golden ring necked pheasants

Nobody ever believes this redditor

A crazy stalker releasing birds

The illustration showed birds with megaphones

Where this Redditor got as far as

Sing A Song Sixpence

This Redditor is singing their own versions

This Redditor wasn't even paying attention to it anymore

They are a protected species

This Redditor hopes the lady likes birds

He could have just have them all at once

It continues around the room

A flock of birds with little picks

All the birds in the song

This is not what you are singing

You see the thing about corvids

Gotta keep the items in order

Huru grubs?

Well, this was an interesting piece of information. It was first published in print without accompanying sheet music, as is the case with many songs, and may have been meant to be spoken rather than sung.

Were you aware of this information before now? What are your thoughts about this finding? Leave your thoughts below and share this post as well.