7th Day of Christmas Haiku, Seven Swans a Swimming

7th Day of Christmas Haiku, Swans a Swimming

Plumed water lily

Gliding shyly away. Swan.

Odette, not Odile.

Happy New Year 2019!

Hogmanay is celebrated today in Scotland, with the first stroke of midnight, so Slàinte Mhath!

Catholic Church celebrate Pope Sylvester today – in many Central and Eastern European countries New Year’s Eve is called Silvester.

Swans have been associated with the supernatural world by Egyptians: swan statues have been discovered in royal burial chambers. Egyptians successfully captured many of these birds during their migration and acclimatized them to the weather conditions along the Nile.They must have looked so elegant and graceful gliding with their white bodies over water and singing – more beautiful as they grow older.

Greeks, too, have a mythological story or two involving swans, perhaps the best known and most controversial being that of Leda and the Swan, in which God Zeus took the form of a swan to seduce his beloved Leda, Queen of Sparta – and thus Helen of Troy was born.

King Edward of England took his knighthood vow in Westminster Abbey on 22 May 1306 together with 266 other esquires eligible for knighthood on two swans, ‘The Feast of the Swans“. Apparently the swans had golden and crowns and since then swans have been associated with monarchy.

I hope you will enjoy the 12 Days of Christmas haiku; there will be published one each day starting on Christmas Day. Subscribe to my newsletter to never miss a blog post.

You can enjoy more haiku on this page of my website.