Today, 28th December, is Childermas or Holy Innocents’ Day. It was part of the Twelve Days of Christmas in Tudor times and is a feast day that remembers the slaughter of the baby boys ordered by King Herod in Bethlehem when he heard of the birth of the Christ Child, “the Massacre of the Innocents”.
The apostle Matthew told of the atrocity:
“16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
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