 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.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."