THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD
Anglicans and Roman Catholics mark the Massacre of the Holy Innocents, or Childermass Day, on 28 December. It remembers the children said to have been slaughtered by King Herod in his efforts to kill the infant Christ.
From the early Middle Ages until the dawn of the 20th century, Childermass was means ‘bad day’ in Latin). Fishermen stayed in harbour and it was said any task begun on Childermass would go catastrophically wrong. Even doing the laundry on 28 December would guarantee a death in the family. It was also thought to be unlucky to wear anything new on this day — which does at least provide an excuse to avoid donning the jumper your mother-in-law gave you for Christmas.
