Childermas: In Medieval England, Children Were Beaten On December 28

By | December 27, 2019

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The Massacre of the Innocents at Bethlehem by Matteo di Giovanni, depicting the biblical massacre of infants on that day. (Wikipedia)

While the days of knights, peasants, and castles grow in popularity on Netflix, the people of medieval Europe weren't nearly as excited about their living situation. Disease, injustice, and crushing brutality were simply a way of life, even for those who couldn't begin to pronounce any of those words. Every year on December 28, in a tradition known alternately as Childermas and the Feast of the Holy Innocents or Innocents' Day, children were beaten in commemoration of an even more violent event.

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The terrible King Herod. (aleteia.org)

Childermas Began With King Herod

Way before the first reindeer paused and out jumped good old Santa Claus, a little boy was born in Bethlehem. You might have heard of him. Around the same time, Herod, King of Judaea, heard a prophecy that foretold the coming of a new king who would end Herod's reign of cruelty. Rather than take this as a sign that some serious meditation on whether brutalizing his subjects was really in everyone's best interests was in order, he ordered the murder of all boys under the age of two in Bethlehem.

Interestingly, no one is totally sure exactly when Jesus was born, so it's not clear when this event was supposed to have taken place. In fact, many historians doubt that it happened at all. Still, the people of medieval Europe were dead set on some child-abusing, so December 28 was declared the ironically named Innocents' Day.