Bob Schwartz

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
— Matthew 2:16

Coventry Carol is a favorite Christmas carol. A complicated one. It is beautiful and haunting, performed by great singers and choirs. But unlike other carols of joy and hope, it memorializes a tragic part of the nativity story.

The Book of Matthew narrates what is known as the Massacre of the Innocents. This is the only place this story appears in the Gospels.

Herod is a historical figure, but consensus is that this event never happened. Instead, it echoes a similar story about Pharaoh and the Hebrews.

The carol was originally performed in Coventry, England as part of a sixteenth century mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The play is based on chapter two in the Gospel of Matthew. The song is the testimony of the mothers:

Lully, lullah, thou little tiny child,
Bye bye, lully, lullay.
Thou little tiny child,
Bye bye, lully, lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we sing,
“Bye bye, lully, lullay”?

Herod the king, in his raging,
Chargèd 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 may
For thy parting neither say nor sing,
“Bye bye, lully, lullay.”

Why add this incident to a gospel? Why sing about it, listen to it, and love it for five hundred years? The theme of the gospels, of this season of the year, of this particular year, is darkness and ugliness to light and beauty.

Weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Psalm 30:5