December has multiple celebrations marked on the calendar. One of them is the Day of the Holy Innocents, which is celebrated on December 28 every year. The Day of the Holy Innocents is a Christian-Catholic celebration, which in popular culture has been adapted to be a day in which people play pranks on each other.
Here we tell you a little more about the Day of the Holy Innocents. Here we present the reason and the why it is celebrated, as well as its origins and where the tradition of playing pranks on this date came from.
April Fools’ Day: When is it celebrated?
- December 28
The Day of the Holy Innocents is celebrated on December 28 each year, according to Christian tradition.
Origin of the Day of the Holy Innocents. Why is it celebrated?
The origin of the Day of the Holy Innocents goes back to the times close to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, according to Christianity.
According to historical data, this day was adopted by Christianity to honor the memory of the children who died during the reign of King Herod. This king ordered the killing of children under two years of age in Bethlehem, in his desire to kill Jesus of Nazareth.
The Gospel of Matthew relates that King Herod I the Great gave this indication to the soldiers after hearing the prophecy that said that a child born in Bethlehem would become the king of the Jews.
Why are jokes made on the Day of the Holy Innocents?
While the Day of the Holy Innocents is related to religion, in popular culture it has been taken as a day in which jokes are played on people.
The theories mention that the jokes and tricks arose from the ingenuity of the parents who tried to hide their children from Herod’s soldiers.
Other accounts state that April Fools’ Day dates back to the custom of medieval France, where according to euronews.com, “New Year’s Day was celebrated on March 25 until 1564, when the Julian calendar was reformed and changed to the Gregorian calendar. Before that, New Year’s celebrations culminated on April 1” and those who forgot to change the date “after the official adoption of January 1 as New Year’s Day” on April 1 were ridiculed and “branded as innocents”.