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Article: What will your true love spend this Christmas?(Business Report Weekend)
- Article from:
- The Sunday Independent (South Africa)
- Article date:
- December 17, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Independent News & Media PLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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BYLINE: Dakin Campbel
The Twelve Days of Christmas is a memory and forfeit game that originated in northern Europe during the Middle Ages. The form of the rhyme used today first appeared in writing in a book called Mirth Without Mischief, published in London in 1780.
In the Middle Ages, the 12 days of Christmas, starting on December 25 and ending on Twelfth Night, January 6, was a period feasting and revels, believed to have its origins in pagan mid-winter customs and the Roman Saturnalia. Often, traditional roles of masters and servants and men and women were reversed.
This year, the cost of gifts in the classic song rose 3.1 percent to a ...