Holy Innocents, also known as Childermas, Innocents’ Day, and Feast of the Holy Innocents, is a holiday that falls on different days in the Western and Eastern Christian churches. In Western churches, it is celebrated on December 28th, and in Eastern churches, it is celebrated on December 29th.

The purpose of this holiday is to commemorate the massacre of children by King Herod as he was attempting to kill baby Jesus. These children have been regarded as the first martyrs of the early church and have been celebrated since before the fifth century when it was celebrated as a part of Epiphany. However, by the fifth century, it had become a separate festival and eventually became a saint’s day.

The Massacre of the Innocents

The story of Herod is told in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 2, verses 1 through 18. In this story, Herod was a king of Judea who was very disliked by his people because he was indifferent to religion and had connections with the Roman Empire.

This unpopularity caused him to be extremely fearful that someone was going to kill him and seize his throne, so he took every opportunity to eliminate his rivals and ensure that he had no enemies. Then one day, Eastern astrologers came to him and asked him about the whereabouts of the “newborn king of the Jews.”

They were told that Jewish Scriptures named Bethlehem as the place where the next Messiah would be born, and having seen this king’s star, decided to pay him homage. Herod told them they should report back to him when they found him, so he too could pay homage to the newborn king.

These astrologers found Jesus, the newborn king, and offered up their gifts to him. However, they received a warning from an angel who told them to avoid Herod, which they did. Jesus was then able to escape to Egypt. Unable to find Jesus, Herod became enraged and ordered all the boys under the age of two in Bethlehem to be put to death.

History of Holy Innocents

Holy Innocents as a holiday can be traced back to the year 485 A.D when it was celebrated as a feast day in the Western Church, or more specifically in the Leonine Sacramentary. However, it wasn’t celebrated as its own feast day but was instead a part of the Feast of the Epiphany and was celebrated in January.

Eventually, sometime after the 5th century, it became decoupled from Epiphany and became its own feast day. In modern times, it has been known as Holy Innocents’ Day, Childermas, Children’s Mass, and Innocents’ Day.

It is celebrated on December 27th in the Maronite Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church; on December 28th in the Church of England, the Lutheran Church, and the Roman Catholic Church; and on January 10th in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.

Celebrating Holy Innocents

This holiday has been practiced in different ways by different people throughout history. Before the 17th century, it was customary to spank your children at sunrise on Holy Innocents to remind them of the suffering the innocents of Bethlehem had to endure.

Today, however, that practice has fortunately died out for the most part. Up until 1962, priests in the Roman Catholic Church would wear violet vestments for this holiday. However, it was changed to red vestments during that year.

Nowadays, people often attend churches where the priest says a prayer called the Blessing of the Children; in Mexico, it is celebrated with pranks – much in the same way that April Fools’ Day is celebrated.