In its origins, the day is a sort of gallows humor. The Day of the Innocents observes the day when, according to the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible, King Herod ordered the baby boys under 2 years old in Bethlehem to be killed because he was afraid that the baby Jesus born there would become a rival. As it turned out, though, the baby Jesus had been taken away to Egypt by Mary and Joseph. So the "joke" was on Herod, and thus followed the tradition of tricking friends on that day. (This is a sad story to be sure, but according to tradition the babies murdered in Jesus' stead went to heaven as the first Christian martyrs.)
Little bit of trivia for ya
Hi! I'm Alba from BGB. We are starting a blog about things to do in Barcelona. We want to meet some expat bloggers living here so we can exchange links. We want our visitors to know another point of view of the city and maybe we can post one of your entrances, or you do! You can visit us on http://www.mediaforis.com/barcelona-guide-bureau/ or write me back to know more about the things we can do together! Alba
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