aah… April 1st!
Spring has sprung, the air is fresh…
and tricksters come out to celebrate the day.
As a kid I looked forward to April Fool’s Day, planning jokes and other mischief. But now I wonder why we have a day dedicated to celebrating Fools. After all, people of this persuasion are pretty plentiful, they seem to be all around us, although etiquette usually demands we don’t point out their state of confusion. And they don’t seem to confine their actions to one specific day per year so how did celebrating on this one day come about?
The origin of April Fools’ Day/All Fools’ Day is not entirely clear, but it’s believed to date back to the 16th century when, in France, the Julian calendar celebrated the New Year on April 1st. Then in 1582 the Gregorian calendar was introduced, and New Year’s Day was moved to January 1st. Of course, there’s always those who don’t catch on, or are just downright suborned, set in their ways. These misguided individuals were labeled as “fools” by those who followed the new calendar and became the subject of pranks, jokes, and hoaxes. Thus, it’s thought, a tradition was born.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve pretty much stopped the jokes and pranks. But now I find it’s not only people who play tricks, and they don’t confine their pranks to April 1st. You know this if you’ve ever been jettisoned by a horse who was calmly going ‘this way’ and abruptly changed to ‘that way’ leaving you still on the ‘this way’ trajectory. My horse seems to enjoy this joke as she stands there, looking down at me innocently, seeming to say ‘What in heavens name are you doing DOWN THERE!?’
