Fourth day of Christmas

Yesterday was Childermas, the feast celebrated on Dec. 8 to commemorate Herod’s massacre of the children of Bethlehem of two years old and below, in an effort to kill the Infant Jesus. It is now more popularly known as the Feast of the Holy Innocents. In medieval times, it was the custom to whip children and adults so "that the memory of Herod’s murder of the Innocents might stick closer." Boccacio used the practice as the plot for some of his stories in the Decameron. In the Philippines, it was traditionally celebrated much like April Fool’s day. The idea was to try to borrow money or some object from a friend, replacing it with something totally worthless and reminding the person that it is Niños Inocentes Day. Today, the feast is hardly observed.

There was a time when people believed that 14,000 innocent children were massacred by Herod. The Syrians spoke of 64,000 while many medieval authors figured it to be 144,000. But Bethlehem was then a small town and modern scholars estimated the number of children killed from only ten to twenty.

But the number of innocent children killed is just a statistic. What is important is the fact that they were the very first Christian martyrs and that they not only died for Christ, but in place of Christ.

A historical coincidence is that it was on the Feast of the Holy Innocents that the Spanish military court decided that Rizal’s death sentence would be execution by musketry, a decision that was confirmed by Governor-General Polavieja. As a matter of fact, Rizal’s entire trial happened during the Christmas season. On Christmas Eve, the members of the court martial that tried Rizal were appointed by the Military Governor of Manila. The day after Christmas, he was sentenced to death. And on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, it was decided that he would be executed by musketry. The next day Rizal was informed that he would be executed the following day. Since then, Filipinos commemorate the fifth day of Christmas as Rizal Day. So we end the year by celebrating the Nativity of our Lord and the martyrdom of our national hero. Rizal has become an inextricable part of Christmastide.

How fitting it would have been if he had been executed during the Feast of the Holy Innocents! The day before he died, Rizal wrote a letter to Prof. Ferdinand Blumentritt wherein he stated that he was innocent of the crime of rebellion and that he was going to his death with a clear conscience.

The Holy Innocents were martyrs in deed but not in will. Rizal was a martyr in deed and in will. All were equally innocent.