From days 8 to 12 your true love gives you milkmaids, dancing ladies, leaping lords, pipers and drummers. Human beings. As gifts. Which makes eating the birds feel a lot more okay.
This carol was written back when Christmas was a mere 12 days long. Now Christmas starts in mid-October. “On the eightieth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…”
Depends on how the song is interpreted. The intention is probably “by the 𝑛ᵗʰ day of Christmas, my true love had given to me [list of 𝑛+(𝑛–1)+…1 items]” but the actual grammar means that by day 12, you’d have received 𝑛(13–𝑛) of the 𝑛ᵗʰ item, or
12 drummers drumming
22 pipers piping
30 lords-a leaping
36 ladies dancing
40 maids a-milking
42 swans a-swimming
42 geese a-laying
40 gold rings
36 calling birds
30 French hens
22 turtle doves
12 partriges in pear trees
Total is 184 birds. By day 7, only 69 birds, up 50 % from 46 by day 6. At least the number of received birds stays constant (23) on days 8-12. The geese technically-a-reproducing are not accounted for, as the eggs might not be fertilized and take several weeks to hatch.
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