On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me six geese a laying. Whether that phrasing denotes the imminent emergence of an abundance of eggs or just two prile of rather lazy birds I have never quite decided, but there again does the inference really matter beyond the yearly repetition in that clever and sublimely seasonal rhyme.
Goose was once after all the bird of choice for Christmas feasts before the turkey was exported from North America to Europe. Thereafter that plump succulent beast being bred in both prodigious quantities and at exceptionally economic prices, quickly becoming the staple for yuletide fayre.
In Christian folklore the six geese are suggested to represent the six days of creation, although that derivation escapes any easy proof as do so many other aged and innocuous sayings.
Should the fancy ever take you for a novel Christmas feast, I do recommend the succulent, moist, deliciousness of that most seasonal of water fowl, the goose.
Daily Abstract Thoughts 