This calendar icon of the month December is divided into five rows or registers, showing the most important feast days and saints of the month, all finely painted against a gold ground. In all probability the icon once belonged to a series of 12 month-icons that formed an entire calendar year. The Nativity is depicted for the 25^th and the Synaxis of the Mother of God for the 26^th of December. An intriguing scene is painted for the 28^th of December: the Martyrdom of the 20,000 Christians of Nicomedia who were burned in their church while celebrating the Nativity in the year 302. This scene mirrors the Massacre of the Innocents in Bethlehem (29^th of December).