You know the song. “On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…” I did a little research on this holiday “standard”. Many people think that the twelve days in the song refer to the twelve days leading up to Christmas Day. No no. In the Western church, these twelve days of partridges, gold rings, and calling birds are actually the twelve days from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany (January 6th). Epiphany is celebrated as the time the three Wise Men (or Magi) arrived to present gifts to the infant Jesus (Matt 2:1-12).

Eastern Orthodox traditions use a different calendar. They celebrate Christmas on January 7th, and observe Epiphany on January 19th. In fact, since we are hosting an exchange student from Georgia (the Republic of) this year (Gamarjoba, Tina!), we will celebrating Christmas twice this year. I like that.

So, back to the song. Some scholars believe it was written as a nonsensical “memory-jogger” song for children. It would therefore be a distant relative of the “Simon” electronic toy released in the late ‘70s and still popular today (see, there’s some technology in this article after all – with more to come as well). Anyway, others believe that the song was used as a mnemonic device to teach the catechism to youngsters during the 16th century religious wars in England. They opine that “true love” refers to God Himself, and the “me” referred to in the song represents any baptized believer in the Christian faith. The twelve gifts represent aspects of the faith. For example, the “partridge in a pear tree” refers to Christ, the “four calling birds” the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), and the “eight maids a-milking” the Beatitudes (“Blessed are the poor in spirit”, etc.).

Whatever the origins of the song, it remains a favorite Christmas carol hundreds of years later. So, what does this all have to do with technology?

I admit it’s a bit oblique, but in the spirit of the holidays and this age-old ballad, I have come up with this year’s Thirteen Days of Mac Christmas. Thirteen? Hang with me. Feel free to sing along. Follow the bouncing mouse pointer.

On the Twelfth day of Mac Christmas, my true love gave to me: a TWELVE-inch PowerBook G4. If you don’t need a lot of screen space, but want desktop power (and DVD burning) in a small package, this box is for you. But don’t get one before January 11th.

ELEVEN days in January till MacWorld 2005. What wonders will be announced? Christmas in January for Mac users.

TEN versions of the Mac operating system. If there’s no maze to begin with, you don’t need a talking paper clip or cartoon dog to lead you through it.

NINE-point-two-point-two. This is the year to quit. You know who you are.

EIGHT gigabytes of RAM accessible by the PowerMac G5.

SEVEN-teen inch iMac G5 – Fortune magazine’s favorite new tech product of the year.
SIX colors of iPod Socks to keep your iPod warm and scratch-free.

FIVE GOLD RINGS! Ever notice that even if they don’t know any of the other words, everyone chimes in on this line with great zeal?

FOUR gigabyte iPod mini. Maybe 5 GB soon.

THREE more years to Microsoft “Longhorn” (maybe). Don’t wait. Go Mac now.

TWO-inch-thick iMac G5. Called by the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg “the most elegant desktop computer I’ve ever used”.

ONE more sentence till I run out of space.

And the promised thirteenth day? ZERO. Zero viruses, zero spyware, zero adware. Have a Happy Mac Holiday!

© 2004 Peter F. Zimowski