Is There Encoded Religious Meaning in the “Twelve Days of Christmas”?

The “Twelve Days of Christmas” is one of our most beloved Christmas songs of all time. The famous tune is catchy and has been re-written and re-recorded countless times over the centuries. In 1979, Hugh McKeller, a hymnologist, published a book that he called How to Decode the Twelve Days of Christmas. In it, he proposed that Catholics who were unable to legally practice their religion from 1558-1829 in England composed the lyrics as a catechism to secretly help young Catholics remember their faith. Since that time, others have suggested the same thing. And thus, the urban legend about the true meaning of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” began. Today, many people believe that there are encoded Catholic messages within the lyrics.