Day of the Innocents: why it is celebrated on December 28

Have they ever made you a joke, you fell and they told you “innocence is worth you”? Of course, there is no one who has never experienced this. But do you know where the origin of “April Fools” comes from? According to Catholic tradition, over two thousand years ago, King Herod ordered the murder of all children under the age of two who lived in Bethlehem, Judea. Saint Matthew, the evangelist charged with recording this historic moment, assures us in his writings that Herod was obsessed with power and feared being dethroned. When he heard that the Star of Bethlehem announced the arrival of the Messiah, a new king, he brought up the subject. He didn’t imagine it was a different king than him.

Who did? He met the Three Kings, making them believe that he was interested in the child and said to them: “Come on, find out about this child, and when you find him, come and tell me, so that I too. I can love it. ” Thus, according to the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Melchior, Gaspar and Baltazar went to Bethlehem guided by the star and found the Child Jesus with the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. But before returning to Herod with the news, God appeared to them in a dream to tell them to change course and not to return to the king.

Without news and enraged, Herod surrounded the city of Bethlehem with his army and ordered the slaughter of all children under the age of two. Jesus survived because an angel told Saint Joseph so and they fled to Egypt. After this historic massacre, the Catholic Church pays homage every December 28 to those innocent saints who died before they could commit a sin.

But it didn’t stop there, because In the Middle Ages, there was a pagan holiday known as the Fool’s Day, which called thousands of people to dance and drink wildly in the days after Christmas and before the New Year. Many associate it with this. And many others speak of the feast of Saturnalia, celebrated in Rome during the last weeks of the year in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. On this day there were meetings between the authorities of Rome and the people, during which the bread was tasted with a seed inside and whoever found it was appointed temporary king and could make jokes on his fellow men.