Day of the Holy Innocents (Día de los Santos Inocentes)
28 December 2026 — Shh… whose back will I sneak onto today?
On 28 December, Spain and many Spanish-speaking countries mark the Day of the Holy Innocents (Día de los Santos Inocentes). The religious occasion commemorates the children who, according to the Gospel of Matthew, suffered in the time of King Herod, and it is observed with respect. Over the centuries, however, a separate folk custom of harmless pranks grew up around the date, much like April Fools’ Day elsewhere. Friends and relatives play tricks on one another, and newspapers, radio and television publish made-up stories known as “inocentadas” (innocent jokes). A classic prank is to secretly stick a paper cut-out figure, a monigote, on someone’s back. When the prank is revealed, the prankster usually calls out “¡Inocente, inocente!” (“Fooled you!”, literally “Innocent!”) to the person who fell for it. The date falls just after the winter solstice, when nights are longest. It is fixed in the Gregorian calendar.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure made of luminous dots and fine lines, like a constellation: a little paper-doll monigote with a wide grin and outstretched arms, floating across the night sky as if secretly stuck to the back of an invisible passer-by
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