December 28
Holidays
12 holidays recorded on December 28 throughout history
Quote of the Day
“I not only use all the brains that I have, but all I can borrow.”
Browse by category
King Herod killed every boy under two in Bethlehem.
King Herod killed every boy under two in Bethlehem. Or so Matthew's Gospel says — historians find no Roman record of the massacre, and Josephus, who catalogued Herod's cruelties in detail, never mentioned it. The feast emerged in fourth-century Gaul as Christianity's darkest holy day. Medieval Europe banned weddings on Childermas, believing the date cursed. Spain flipped the script entirely: by the 1500s it became *Día de los Inocentes*, their April Fools' Day, where the "innocent" are those gullible enough to believe your prank. Same name, same date — mourning in one cathedral, fake news in the plaza outside.
Thailand's warrior-king lasted just 15 years.
Thailand's warrior-king lasted just 15 years. Taksin fought off Burmese invaders in 1767, united a shattered kingdom, moved the capital to Thonburi, then descended into madness—ordering executions, claiming divine status, demanding monks worship him. His own generals killed him in 1782. But Thais remember the rescue, not the end. Every December 28, they honor the Chinese merchant's son who became king when there was no kingdom left to rule. Without him, the map might not show Thailand at all.
South Australians celebrate Proclamation Day annually on December 28 to mark the formal establishment of their colony.
South Australians celebrate Proclamation Day annually on December 28 to mark the formal establishment of their colony. This holiday honors the moment when Governor John Hindmarsh read the proclamation, officially declaring British sovereignty over the region and setting the foundation for its unique legal and political systems.
The church commemorates Herod's soldiers hunting Bethlehem's baby boys — but medieval Europe turned it dark.
The church commemorates Herod's soldiers hunting Bethlehem's baby boys — but medieval Europe turned it dark. Children wore mourning clothes. Monks got whipped. Spain reversed it: victims became pranksters. By the 1500s, Spaniards swapped salt for sugar, sent friends on fake errands, told wild lies with a straight face. The inversion spread across Latin America. Same day, opposite spirit — from history's cruelest paranoia to harmless deception. The innocent now trick the gullible, and nobody dies.
Wrong number, wrong door, wrong man.
Wrong number, wrong door, wrong man. Caterina Volpicelli turned down three arranged marriages before her family gave up. Born 1839 in Naples to minor nobility who wanted her wed at 16. She said no—then no again—then founded the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart instead. Started in her family's palazzo with six women and a mission to educate poor girls. By her death in 1894, 47 houses across Italy. The order still runs schools in eleven countries. Her great-nephew became a priest partly to understand why she'd walked away from everything his family had planned for her.
The Eastern Orthodox Church marks December 28 as the Feast of the Holy Innocents — the children Herod ordered killed …
The Eastern Orthodox Church marks December 28 as the Feast of the Holy Innocents — the children Herod ordered killed while hunting the infant Jesus. But here's what most miss: Orthodox churches follow the Julian calendar, which runs 13 days behind the Gregorian West. So when Rome mourned these children on December 28, 1582, Constantinople still had nearly two weeks to go. The calendar split happened when Pope Gregory XIII reformed the Western calendar to fix Easter drift. Orthodox patriarchs refused. Not over theology — over math they didn't trust. Today, a third of Orthodox churches have switched to the Revised Julian calendar for fixed dates, creating a holiday that now falls on three different days depending on which Orthodox tradition you follow. Same feast. Same children. Three Decembers.
The twelve days weren't always about drummers and gold rings.
The twelve days weren't always about drummers and gold rings. Medieval Christians used them as a countdown *from* Christmas to Epiphany — celebrating not the birth itself but the journey of the Magi who wouldn't arrive until January 6th. Each day marked another mile closer to Bethlehem. The partridge-and-pear-tree song came later, in 1780s England, as a memory game for children. But the original fourth day? Just another cold morning of waiting, praying, and watching the eastern horizon. The gifts were still coming.
Governor John Hindmarsh read the proclamation under a gum tree at Glenelg Beach.
Governor John Hindmarsh read the proclamation under a gum tree at Glenelg Beach. December 28, 1836. The paper made South Australia official, but the real story was what it promised: no convicts, religious freedom, and guaranteed land rights for Aboriginal peoples — promises that lasted about as long as the ink took to dry. Within months, settlers were pushing inland, treaties were ignored, and the "free" colony became just another British land grab. But that first promise, read aloud to a crowd of 200 colonists, created a myth South Australia still tells itself: we were different from the start. The tree's gone now. The myth remains.
The Coptic Orthodox Church remembers Abel today — not just as history's first murder victim, but as its first martyr.
The Coptic Orthodox Church remembers Abel today — not just as history's first murder victim, but as its first martyr. His brother killed him over rejected sacrifice. Genesis says Abel's blood "cried out from the ground." Coptic tradition holds he died on December 28th and considers his death the prototype of all religious persecution: killed for offering God the right thing. The church links him directly to the Holy Innocents slaughtered by Herod, also commemorated in late December. His name means "breath" or "vapor" in Hebrew — fitting for a life that lasted maybe thirty years before Cain's stone ended it. Early Christians saw Abel's acceptable sacrifice as prefiguring Christ's.
Abel — the first person to die, according to Genesis.
Abel — the first person to die, according to Genesis. But here's what's odd: the Coptic Church picked December 28th to remember him, the same day as the Feast of the Holy Innocents, when Herod slaughtered Bethlehem's children. Not a coincidence. They're linking Abel's murder by his brother to those infants killed by jealous power. First innocent blood to newest. The Copts call Abel "the Righteous," and they read his story during Nativity fasts as a reminder that violence against the innocent didn't start with Herod. It started in a field between two brothers, one sacrifice accepted and one rejected. The pattern was set from the beginning.
The candle lit today is for *ujima* — collective work and responsibility.
The candle lit today is for *ujima* — collective work and responsibility. It's the Swahili word Maulana Karenga chose in 1966 when he created Kwanzaa in the aftermath of the Watts riots, drawing from East African harvest traditions to give Black Americans a holiday rooted in African values rather than European or commercial culture. Each of the seven days centers on a different principle. This one asks: what do we build together? Families gather, someone recites the principle's meaning, and the night often ends with storytelling about ancestors who carried their communities. Not religious, not a replacement for Christmas — a separate space, chosen freely.
July 9, 2011.
July 9, 2011. A country barely bigger than France becomes the world's newest nation — and 98.83% of voters said yes. South Sudan splits from Khartoum after two civil wars that killed 2.5 million people across five decades. Independence Day becomes Republic Day in 2013 to honor the victims, not just the victory. The oil-rich south finally got its own flag, its own seat at the UN, its own Olympic team. But the jubilation lasted three years. By 2013, ethnic violence between Dinka and Nuer forces turned liberation into civil war again. The country that fought so hard to be born spent most of its first decade trying not to die.