Rachel’s Reflections

Today is the Sixth Day of Christmas.  And it is also the day before the end of the year.  Although for some it is the second day of the year.  My husband, Jeremy, informed me that yesterday was the start of the Muslim New Year.  It is year 1430 AH (anno Hegirae:  “in the year of the Hijra—Islamic prophet Muhammad’s emigration from Mecca to Medina”).¹  This month in the Islamic calendar is called Muharram.  Interestingly the Wikipedia article says that this is the second holiest month in the year (Ramadan being the holiest), and that this is one of the four months of the year when fighting is prohibited.  And in fact, that is the source of the month’s name: “the word is derived from the word ‘haram’ meaning forbidden.” ²  Do please click on the associated links, both here and in the footnotes, to learn more.  There’s more interesting information in those articles than I can put here.

Happy New Year’s, Muslims!

And for the rest of us, since it’s the Sixth Day of Christmas, I have another installment for you in the song we all know:

On the Sixth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Six geese a-laying
(Five golden rings**
Four calling birds*
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.)

* Note: Wikipedia says “calling birds” is a corruption of “colly birds” which are black birds.

** Wikipedia also assures me that golden rings does not refer to “jewelry but to ring-necked birds such as the ring-necked pheasant.”

¹ Source is “Islamic Calendar” from Wikipedia.  Please follow the link to learn more.

² from the Wikipedia article “Muharram“

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