I cringe when people would greet me Happy Innocent’s day because how can it be a happy day when you’re commemorating the massacre of the innocents? Just shows how ignorant some Catholics are on their faith. So to clear things up let me explain few things.
December 27, 28 or 29 (depending on the church) is celebrated in commemoration of Herod’s order to kill all male infants in Bethlehem when he heard from a Magi that a King of the Jews was born. The infants killed were hailed as the first Christian martyrs by the church.
from John the Baptist:
“And when Herod knew that he had been mocked by the Magi, in a rage he sent murderers, saying to them: Slay the children from two years old and under. And Mary, having heard that the children were being killed, was afraid, and took the infant and swaddled Him, and put Him into an ox-stall. And Elizabeth, having heard that they were searching for John, took him and went up into the hill-country, and kept looking where to conceal him. And there was no place of concealment. And Elizabeth, groaning with a loud voice, says: O mountain of God, receive mother and child. And immediately the mountain was cleft, and received her. And a light shone about them, for an angel of the Lord was with them, watching over them.”
In the Philippines Innocent’s day is usually a day of pranks as influenced by the Spanish colonization. Pranks (bromas) are also known in Spain as inocentadas and their victims are called inocentes, or alternatively, the pranksters are the “inocentes” and the victims should not be angry at them, since they could not have committed any sin.
How about you how do you remember/celebrate December 28? I used to attend the Children’s Mass.
