Memorial
28 December (Roman Catholic; Church of England; Lutheran Church)
the feast is sometimes known as Childermas or Children’s Mass
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This story always upset me as a child and still bothers me as an adult. The evil of Herod and the way life, particularly innocent helpless life, was valued so insignificantly is a crime and a sin of humanity. This Feast is celebrated in The Coventry Carol:
Herod the king in his raging
Set forth upon this day
By his decree, no life spare thee
All children young to slay
All children young to slay
This day honors the children slaughtered by Herod the Great when he tried to kill the infant Christ. When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the Magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the Magi. Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.” - Matthew 2:16-18. They gave their lives, in their innocence, for Christ. They are one of only two non Christian Groups formally honored as saints, the other being the Macabees.
In Spain and Hispanic America, December 28 is a day for pranks, equivalent to April Fool's Day in many countries. Pranks are known as inocentadas and their victims are called inocentes. Various Catholic countries had a tradition (no longer widely observed) of role reversal between children and their adult educators, including boy bishops, perhaps a Christianized version of the Roman annual feast of the Saturnalia (when even slaves played 'masters' for a day). This is also the day when the “King of the Fools’ would have been crowned. In some cultures it is said to be an unlucky day, when no new project should be started.
In addition, there was a medieval custom of refraining where possible from work on the day of the week on which the feast of "Innocents Day" had fallen for the whole of the following year until the next Innocents Day. This was presumably mainly observed by the better-off.
Patronage
babies
children’s choir
choir boys
foundlings
The unborn
The defenseless
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