Holy Innocents’ Day

If we go by popular English Yuletide songs, today is the third day of Christmas, known in English as Childermas, short for Mass of the Holy Innocents. Ironically enough, the song Twelve Days of Christmas makes no referral to the Holy Innocents. On the third day, the song is totally concerned with the number of gifts which a man sends to his true love and so Three French Hens are what become significant on the third day of Christmas.

This reflects a great truth about the way we commemorate Christmas. Everyone remembers the Epiphany because that is when the very first Christmas gifts were presented by the Wise Men from the East, but no one really observes the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Everyone seems oblivious to the fact that the children that Herod killed to make sure that the new-born saviour did not survive were not only the very first Christian martyrs, but they were martyrs in the place of Christ Himself.

The Feast of the Holy Innocents should be a major Christian holyday. The Wise Men from the East merely gave gifts to the new-born Saviour. The Holy Innocents sacrificed their very lives. St. Stephen is said to be the protomartyr of the Christian church. With due deference to St. Stephen, we maintain that the Holy Innocents were the very first Christian martyrs. Their martyrdoms antedates that of Christ Himself. It is true that they probably did not have the slightest idea why they were being killed, but the fact is clear, they died in place of Christ and if that does not make them innocent martyrs, then they become martyrs of injustice. And another fact is that they not only died in place of Christ, they died before Christ.

Some people will argue that it is the cause and not the death that makes martyrs. Friedrich W. Nietzse said that "martyrdom was blood as verification of truth." Their blood verified that Christ was born. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. And theirs were the very first seeds.

The truth is that traditionally, the Feast of the Holy Innocents was celebrated as the old equivalent of April Fool‚s Day. On that day, friends borrowed money and if you loaned it to them without realizing that it was Holy Innocents Day, they said Niños Inocentes and never paid you back. We are glad that custom has disappeared.

The Vatican has downgraded the Feast of the Three Kings. The Feast of the Epiphany has been made to coincide with the first Sunday of January that does not fall on a New Year. It has also acknowledged the fact that the Pope would enhance the celebration of the Feast of the Holy Innocents. There was a time when people believed that thousands of innocent babies were killed through Herod's order. The truth is that Bethlehem was then just a small town. Modern researchers think that the number could not have been more than 20.

That is not what is important. The important thing is to give them due homage as the very first individuals that lost their lives for the Saviour. It should be an annual Yuletide feast dedicated to all living infants.

It was on the Feast of the Holy Innocents of 1896 that the Spanish military court decided that Rizal would be shot. Rizal was innocent of the charges made against him. Today's Holy Innocents are the street children.