Feast of the Holy Innocents

Today commemorates the Massacre of the Holy Innocents. This bleak day in history inspired a play called the Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors and the haunting song, The Coventry Carol, reprinted below. It is the only carol that has survived from the play.


Lyrics

Lully, lullay,* Thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we do sing
By, by, lully, lullay.

Herod the king, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day
His men of might, in his own sight,
All young children to slay.

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!
And ever mourn and say, **
For thy parting neither say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.

* Sometimes rendered "Lully, lulla

An analogy is often drawn between aborted babies and the innocents killed by Herod. The difference is that the mothers of the children in Herod's time tried to save their sons.