Overview
- El Imparcial explains Matthew’s account in which Herod orders the killing of Bethlehem boys under two after Jesus’ birth, presented as fulfilling prophecy and underscoring a persecuted Messiah.
- Historians dispute the event’s historicity due to its absence in Josephus, though Herod’s recorded brutality makes a localized episode plausible, with modern estimates of roughly six to twenty victims.
- The Western Church has commemorated the children as martyrs since the 4th century, marking the feast on December 28.
- In Ibero‑American popular culture, the day evolved into pranks and hoaxes that shifted the meaning of “inocente” toward gullibility alongside the religious observance.
- La Vanguardia’s Llucia Ramis invokes the Herod narrative to criticize dehumanization, referencing the Instituto B9 eviction in Badalona and reporting that overall crime has declined while crimes against unhoused people rose 30% over the last year.