If you’ve read this blog over the past few years, you know that today, December 28, is considered to be the unluckiest day of the year on the Christian calendar. If you’re interested in more details, you can check the archives of this blog for the entries on December 28 — but briefly….
At one time, the day, known as the Feast of the Holy Innocents, or alternatively, as Childermass, was considered cursed. The past is littered with warnings about Childermass — like, “no important affair is taken in hand on Childermass Day, and the sailors are heedful not to leave their port in the way of beginning a voyage under consideration.” Or, “it is very unlucky to begin any work whatever on this day.” And, “this day is of most unlucky omen. None ever marries on a childermass day.”
But children had the most to fear on the 28th of December — up until the seventeenth century, it was believed that ritually beating a child with a stick on Childermass brought the beater good luck and reminded the child of both King Herod’s viciousness and Jesus’s suffering.
Catholics still observe December 28 with prayers and readings referencing King Herod’s slaughter of babies as recorded in Matthew.
So — folklore, superstition, and traditions have all contributed to today being an unlucky day.
But — I think an argument can be made that my birthday — August 6 — just might be the unluckiest day. Take a look at some events that have occurred on August 6.
1890 — The first ever execution by electric chair occurred at Auburn Prison in New York.
1914 — Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia, pitting two of the major powers of World War I against one another.
1945 — The Enola Gay dropped the first-ever atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan — instantly killing 80,000 people.
1951 — 4,800 people died when a massive typhoon hit the coast of Manchuria in northeast Asia.
1964 — The world’s oldest tree, known as “Prometheus,” was cut down by a graduate student conducting climate research. The tree, located in Great Basin National Park, was around 4,900 years old.
1997 — a Korean Air flight crashed on the island of Guam. Of the 254 people aboard, only 26 survived.
2013 — Twenty-five people were killed and 60 others injured when a series of car bombs detonated in Baghdad.
2019 — The Department of Health in Manila, Philippines, declared a national epidemic after the dengue outbreak.
I’ll let you decide if maybe my birthday is unluckier than December 28, but superstition aside, today is a good day to remember that not a whole lot has changed in our world — it’s not a safe place for many people. Unfortunately, innocent people are still put death — I guess Childermass is a good day to remember that.
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