What is a partridge and why is it in a tree?
There is a myth about this song. The myth goes that because Catholics were oppressed during various times in England through history that this was a way for them to sing about or teach their faith in secret without persecution. The partridge in a pair tree symbolising Oily Josh, Jesus if ya basic. But there isn’t much evidence to back this up. For starters the song was originally French, who have been very catholic throughout history and chose to victimise the protestant instead, because I suppose you have to pick someone to be a dick to. But back to the song, this was back in 1780s from a children’s book Mirth Without Mischief based on an old French song Les douze mois. The English did have partridges as part of their language, menu and lands ecology, even Shakespeare mentions them but these were the grey partridges not the red legged fellas you also see running about on farmland nowadays, which were introduced by the French, because the aristocracy preferred them, probably because they were a little bigger and more exotic.
From what other people who are better at history than me can tell, this song is exactly what it’s always been. A game. A game that usually had forfeits, so if your forgot one of the gifts you would have to pay a forfeit, which could range from drinking, to food, but most likely a favour or a kiss. I can imagine a christmasy version of various drinking games I have played when alcohol and mirth was involved and it all lead to a lot mischief. Partridges used to be associated with being an aphrodisiac as a food so… Although I can’t find a reference for this older than the 1960s and partridges appear as symbols through many cultures at different times, including Greek myth which predated Christianity to being Kurdistan’s national bird. Who really knows? The song has changed through the years, “bears a-baiting” and “ships asailing” have been lost and “colly birds” (an old name for blackbirds) has changed to calling birds. The version we have now is from the early 1900s around 1909 by Frederic Austin. The song would be a pretty useless way as a method for teaching or remembering core aspects of any faith and any academic I find can tell you many things wrong with the myth, but mostly that we know this was never a Catholic song, it was an old French folk song.
So for something as old and engrained in English culture such as a partridge, why haven’t I had the chance to eat one?
Grey Partridges are a lot smaller, slower growing and have smaller eggs than your average domestic chicken, they also aren’t as social which means they weren’t first pick for domestication unlike the humble chook. Having partridge was a sign of wealth. It meant that you had land with gamekeepers on it, and you could go out and hunt your own game birds. Anyone who did this without the landowners permission was a poacher and could be punished in many ways depending on the lord and what time in history it was. What the gamekeepers could do was to put out feed for the partridges and pheasants, this meant they’d stay in the area, despite being wild birds and they’d be well fed so they’d have plenty of meet on them if they were shot or trapped. And as globalisation really hit it’s stride, the variety of food available to us goes down, favouring foods that are easily farmed, and partridges just aren’t at the top of that list.
Wonderfully Weird 