On the third day of Christmas
my true love gave to me
3 French hens…
So, what exactly is a French hen?
Or is it supposed to be
3 fat hens!
In 1864 the rhyme said ‘fat hens’!
Since the first printed version in 1780
there have been 20 or so different
versions of the rhyme/song.
The 1877 version has the 2 turtle doves as
‘2 French hens’.
Wonder if there were 3 turtle doves then?
That makes no sense!
The scientific name for chicken is
Gallus gallus in Latin.
The Romans (who spoke Latin) called France ‘Gaul’ and the French people were ‘Gallic’.
Gallus and Gallic sounded so similar
that ‘French’ and ‘chicken’ became entwined-
Linguistically speaking that is!
Then the Holy Roman Church picked things up and Middle Age churches in France often have their church bell towers adorned with roosters!
Some people use this as an argument that the original rhyme was from France.
Who knows?
Let’s play with chickens now-
Practice away until you can draw some great hens.
Now you can decorate envelopes,
or use fabric markers and make a custom t-shirt.
Or make unique book covers for friends.
I love this next art piece made from paper scraps:
Uploaded by Joletta Brooks, Pinterest
No comments:
Post a Comment