Beware, Today
Is Pranks Day
December 28 is Día de los Santos Innocentes,
a day when pranks are played on friends and
foes, being converted from the day of the
Massacre of the Innocents, an episode of
mass infanticide by the King of Judea, Herod
the Great, that appears in the Gospel of
Matthew 2:16-18
The author, traditionally believed to be
Matthew the Evangelist, reports that King
Herod ordered the execution of all young
male children in the village of Bethlehem,
so as to avoid the loss of his throne to a
newborn King of the Jews whose birth had
been announced to him by the Magi.
Like much of Matthew's gospel, the incident
is introduced as the fulfillment of passages
in the Old Testament read as prophecies:
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken
through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, A
voice was heard in Ramah, Weeping and great
mourning, Rachel weeping for her children."
The infants, known in the Church as the Holy
Innocents, have been claimed as the first
Christian martyrs. Traditional accounts
number them at more than ten thousand,
though more conservative estimates put their
number in the low dozens.
In Spain and Latin 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, or
alternatively, the pranksters are the "inocentes"
and the victims should not be angry at them,
since they could not have committed any sin.
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). 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.
Philippe de Commynes, the minister of King
Louis XI of France tells in his memoirs how
the king observed this custom, and describes
the trepidation he felt when he had to
inform the king of an emergency on the day.
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Giotto di Bondone, No. 21 Scenes from the Life of Christ Massacre of the Innocents
1304-06 -- Fresco Cappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua |
