April Fool

I should suppose that, this being the first day of April, I should make a fool of myself.

Seems I did that already. The title of my last ‘Blog’ was supposed to be a philosophical pun to make a point but it fell flat. I was criticised for spelling ‘reigns’ wrong!

Sighs deeply.

April the First. All Fools Day.

In British terms it traditionally ends at mid-day but in other parts of the World it goes on all day.

Where did this idea that we have to play jokes on each other come from? Is it some weird American thing—as so many of these odd ‘traditions’ tend to be?

They inflicted the ‘hula-hoop’ on us so it is not such a stretch of the imagination to presume that this April First is also theirs. Is it?

Amazingly it pre-dates the United States by some considerable margin. There is talk in ‘Canterbury Tales’ by Geoffrey (Joffy?) Chaucer of foolishness associated with this date. A cockerel, called Chanticleer, was tricked by a wily fox on this date but, there again, there is a confusion with old English that suggests that the actual date intended might have been May First (thirty two days after March). If you want to refer to Chaucer you will find this in the “Nun’s Priest’s Tale”. Beware. Chaucer was quite naughty here and there.

Other people will point at the change of date of the New Year to January First from April First when Pope Gregory XIII instituted the new Gregorian Calendar in the 16^th Century as being the initiation of April Fool’s day. Note that accountants have yet to catch up—their new year still starts on April First!

There were ‘silly’ days earlier. The Romans had a ‘Hilaria Festival’ on March 25^th, which is pretty close. There was—is, a ‘Feast of Fools’ day on December 28^th that is celebrated by Spanish speaking people.

In 1508 a French poet called Eloy d’Amerval told of a ‘poisson d’Avril’ (April Fish) that could have been about this day.

The first British mention is from John Aubrey (1686) who referred to April First as “Foole’s Holy Day” although it is no longer a holiday.

In spite of the Gregorian calendar, many places in Europe still celebrated March 25^th as New Year’s Day. This is the date set for the ‘Feast of the Annunciation’. This New Year’s holiday was, especially in France, a week long holiday ending, naturally enough, on April First There is a theory that those who celebrated New Year’s on this date were made fun of by those who followed the January First date for New Year.

It may be that this day of jokes started in Iran! They play tricks on each other during their New Year, which is April 1^st or 2^nd. According to their records this tradition goes back to more than 500 years BC.

I liked the April Fool’s Day hoax in 1698 where people were invited to buy tickets to watch the lions being washed in the Tower of London.

Nothing is new, is it?

We think we have all the bases covered, we think we are modern and smart but, really, we could learn a thing or two from the old days. I mean the OLD DAYS! Not just ‘back in the day’ type ‘old days’!

I wonder if I should rewrite ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ as an honorific to John Wayne?