Day of the Innocent Saints - 28th December
Dear citizens of the world,The 28th of December is a minor holiday in Spain with a religious background. It is called the Day of the Innocent Saints and it is similar to April Fool's Day, but with a different date and history.
I was not in Spain this day, but on my return I found out that I was the "Innocent" one to an anonymous gag. I was surprised to find a blow-up doll on my motorcycle in the garage.
The Innocent Saint's day is related to the bible story where King Harod orders all babies (Innocent Saints) younger than two years old to be killed in Bethlehem. Now it is a day for people to play gags.
My initiation was during my first year in Seville. A coworker called me at the office and pretended to be my boss. She pretended to be angry and wanted to fire me, but it was just a cruel joke. I promised to get her back, and I did.
Four months later on April Fool's Day I had an anonymous letter written and hand delivered to her desk before she came to work. The "writer" was a crazy student at the academy who was secretly in love with her and who had followed her home and even followed the boyfriend who would be "removed" from the picture soon so that they could be together.
She read the letter and ran off to the toilet. She did not tell anyone about it and she kept going back to the toilet to reread the letter. Later in the afternoon all of the coworkers huddled around her and asked what was wrong. They slowly let her know that they knew about this crazy student and said that he was outside and wanted to see her. She freaked out and then everyone yelled in unison "April Fool's!"
I told her that I would get her back... and I did, but not without the help of my many colleagues.
Happy Innocent Saints day!
The United Statesian
