Beautiful! Says it all.
What is the celebration of Childermas?
Childermas is also known as Holy Innocents’ Day. This day remembers King Herod’s slaughter of infants in his fanatical search for the baby Jesus. His plan was foiled, however, and thus the tradition of this being a day for children to play tricks on their elders. In Western Europe and Mexico, Childermas is similar to April Fool’s Day observed on April 1 in the United States
Family Scripture Reading and Reflection
As a family, read the Gospel from today’s Liturgy celebrating the feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs. Find this in the Gospel of Matthew 2:13-18.
Talk about images that members of your family has seen —in the newspaper, magazines, on television, which show children and families in pain. Is there anyone in your own neighborhood to whom you can reach out?
Our Family’s Response: A Search for Children and Families in Need
Do your own search as a family for small children who are in need of the basics of life —food, clothing and shelter. Contact a local shelter or food pantry to see what supplies your family might help to provide.
Here are several ideas for reaching out to children and families:
þ Collect whatever local service groups and agencies need. Contact these agencies to see what kind of resources they need; for example, shelters, soup kitchens and food banks almost always have a need for canned goods and perishables. Family shelters need essentials such as sheets, blankets, towels, new underwear, shoes, socks, t-shirts, pajamas, toothbrushes, toothpaste, diapers, baby-wipes, baby shampoo.
þ Create school kits. Include notebooks, pencils, pens, markers, crayons, calculators, rulers, erasers, pencil sharpeners.
þ Create a fun pack for a pre-school age child. Include crayons, play-doh, fingerpaints, chalk, bubbles, and homemade finger puppets.
þ Make a birthday or holiday special by creating a birthday box. As a family, decide what you think should be included in the child’s birthday box. Be creative and remember, your efforts mean someone will be able to celebrate a special day which otherwise would go unnoticed!
Does your family love dessert? So do families at the local soup kitchen. Donate ice-cream sandwiches or cones, or provide the fixings for a make-your-own sundae bar. Recruit neighborhood families or friends and spend a morning baking cookies and decorating them!