On the ninth day of Christmas,
my true love gave to meNine ladies dancing,Eight maids a-milking,Seven swans a-swimming,Six geese a-laying,Five golden rings,Four calling birds,Three French hens,Two turtle doves,And a partridge in a pear tree.Observed on December 28 this year, the Feast of the Holy Innocents honors the memory of the infants who were slaughtered by King Herod following the birth of Jesus. Though the Holy Family escaped Herod's wrath by fleeing into Egypt, the innocent baby boys of Bethlehem fell victim to his manic fear of losing power.
Herod, the king of Judaea, watches as his soldiers slaughter the innocent children of Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the infant Jesus, whom Herod feared would eventually seize his kingdom. According to Boccaccio, 144,000 children were murdered.
The Gospel of St. Matthew tells the story of the Massacre of the Innocents. King Herod ordered the killing of all boys under the age of two born in the Bethlehem area, for the Magi had told him that a child destined to become the king of the Jews had been born in the city.
At one time, the day known as the Feast of the Holy Innocents or, alternatively, as Childermass, was considered cursed — "so much so," according to Francis Kildale's 1855 Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases, "that the day of the week on which it falls is marked as a black day for the whole year to come."
On December 28th, Spain celebrates Día de los Santos Inocentes. This holiday, similar to April Fools' Day, encourages pranks and jokes, known as inocentadas.
This is one of the most popular and entertaining Christmas traditions in Spain. December 28 is the day when everyone is allowed to play practical jokes and when it is customary to buy prank items at Christmas markets like the one in the Plaza Mayor in Madrid.
Prayer:
Dear Holy Innocents,
you were treated with the utmost cruelty even before you were capable of understanding such cruelty.
God permitted your suffering, and now He exalts you forever as the first witnesses to Him who shed your blood
Let us pray. O God, whose praise the martyred Innocents this day proclaimed not by speaking but by dying, put to death all vices within us, that Thy faith which our tongues profess, our lives also by their actions may declare.
