Daniela (who as you all know runs Esceptica) just sent the rest of the Skepchicks this remarkable email:
Subject line: Heads up
Today is the Catholic equivalent of April Fools Day, so we have a post up apologizing for our radical feminazism and for criticizing evo psych. If you hear somewhere that we lost our minds, this is the reason.
It’s the Day of the Holy Innocents, when Herod had every toddler in Bethlehem killed so no one could hide baby Jesus. Word got to Mary and Joseph before the killing started and they were able to run for the mountains. Luckily, they managed to get the word out to everyone else to save other children. Ha, just kidding, they told nobody and the rest of the children where killed. Also, I have no idea why pranks are appropriate if you believe this actually happened.
This time of year, Daniela is known for hitting the margaritas pretty hard, so I looked it up to make sure this wasn’t just some meta-prank. And it’s true! I mean, it’s true that Christians think this happened, and that today Catholics in Spain and Hispanic America celebrate this event by pranking one another. It may not be true that King Herod murdered about 20 babies because he was scared of one, though apparently Herod was in fact a giant, murderous sack of shit.
Regardless, when you consider the Catholics who actually believe it happened, it’s amazing how a few millennia can drastically change how a person memorializes the slaughter of a couple dozen babies. For those who aren’t up to pranking, About.com suggests you just have some chorizo.
On an unrelated note, A (in her most recent post) totally looks like King Herod:
Herod killing a bunch of peasants in a backwater little town was pretty much a “dog bites man” story back in the day. Whoever wrote Matthew stuck that story in to do two things, discredit the puppet dynasty of Herod in light of the Davidic dynasty Jesus is supposed to represent; and as a literary device to get his protagonists into Egypt and back… just like Moses!
My favorite take on the nativity which touches on the massacre is “The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod the Nut, & the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree”. It’s hilarious.
Privileged white middle class americans (such as the contributors) looking down on other more joyful and animistic cultures is all I am seeing here.
Perhaps the Spanish and Latinos could stay inside and gorge on food all day?