In Spain, December 28th is a day of practical jokes, similar to April Fool’s Day.
Dia de los Santos Inocentes – Day of the Holy Innocents is a religious holiday named in honor of the young children who were slaughtered by order of King Herod around the time of Jesus’ birth. These young victims were called Santos Inocentes or “Holy Innocents” because they were too young and innocent to have committed any sins. Although the feast remains on the calendar, today the religious aspect has been almost forgotten and the pranks that became popular during the Middle Ages have been combined with winter festivities of pagan origin.
Similar to Halloween, groups of children in towns across Spain used to go from house to house asking for candy or cookies, making noise with spoons and anise bottles, and singing traditional Christmas songs. The name for this is pedir el aguinaldo. The children’s payment or aguinaldo came in the form of sweets. This custom has faded, especially in the large cities, but is still practiced in some of the smaller villages. Bakers in Spain even got into the fact by making salty rather than sweet cakes in days gone by.
Today most Spanish children play simple pranks like putting salt in the sugar bowl or sticking paper cut-outs on people's backs. These little practical jokes are called Inocentadas.
Here are the Penguins of Madagascar trying to control King Julien's pranks!!
No comments:
Post a Comment