<P> Le douzièm' jour d'l'année, (the twelfth day of the year) Que me donn'rez vous ma mie? (what will you give me, my love?) Douze coqs chantants, (twelve singing cockerels) Onze plats d'argent, (eleven silver dishes) Dix pigeons blancs, (ten white pigeons) Neuf bœufs cornus, (nine horned oxen) Huit vaches mordants, (eight biting cows) Sept moulins à vent, (seven windmills) Six chiens courants, (six running dogs) Cinq lapins courant par terre, (five rabbits running along the ground) Quat' canards volant en l'air, (four ducks flying in the air) Trois rameaux de bois, (three wooden branches) Deux tourterelles, (two turtle doves) Un' perdrix sole, (one lone partridge) Qui va, qui vient, qui vole, (who goes, who comes, who flies) Qui vole dans les bois . (who flies in the woods) </P> <P> According to de Coussemaker, the song was recorded "in the part of (French) Flanders that borders on the Pas de Calais". </P> <P> The exact origins and the meaning of the song are unknown, but it is highly probable that it originated from a children's memory and forfeit game . </P> <P> The twelve days in the song are the twelve days starting with Christmas Day, or in some traditions, the day after Christmas (26 December) (Boxing Day or St. Stephen's Day, as being the feast day of St. Stephen Protomartyr), to the day before Epiphany, or the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January, or the Twelfth Day). Twelfth Night is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking ." </P>

Where did 12 days of christmas song come from