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"Humor is a serious thing. I like to think of it as one of our greatest
and earliest national resources which must be preserved at all costs."
James Thurber
The first of April, some do
say,
Is set apart for All Fools'
Day.
But why the people call it so,
Nor I, nor they themselves do know.
But on this day are people sent
On purpose for pure merriment.
Poor Robin's Almanac (1790)
"The first of
April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.
"
American humorist Mark Twain
What is April Fools Day and how did it begin? Well, that is a very
good question. The origin of this holiday is rather uncertain. However,
the common belief holds that during the reformation of the calendar the
date for the New Year was moved from April 1st to January 1st. During that
time in history there was no television and no radio so word spread
slowly. There were also those who chose to simply ignore
the change and those who merely forgot. These people were considered
"fools" and invitations to non-existent parties and other practical jokes
were played on them. "All Fools' Day" is practiced in many parts of the
world with practical jokes and sending people on a fool's errand.
Another thought is that the origin began with the celebrations of the
Spring Equinox.
In Scotland, April Fools Day lasts 48 hours, day two is know as
Taily
Day and pranks
involving the posterior are played. The victim of the practical joke is
referred to as "hunting the gowk"; the
gowk is the extinct cuckoo bird.
In France, he is the "poisson
d'Avril" or "fish of April." The fish in
April are newly hatched and easily caught.
Día de los
Santos Inocentes is held in Spain
on December 28th. This is The Feast
of the Holy Innocents.
It's celebrated similarly to April Fools' Day with practical jokes
Another version of the
day's history:
In sixteenth-century France,
the start of the new year was observed on April
first. It was celebrated in much the same way as it is today with parties
and dancing into the late hours of the night. Then in 1562, Pope Gregory
introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, and the
new year fell on January first. There were some
people, however, who hadn't heard or didn't believe the change in the
date, so they continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April first. Others
played tricks on them and called them "April fools." They sent them on a
"fool's errand" or tried to make them believe that something false was
true. In France today, April first is called "Poisson
d'Avril." French children fool their friends by taping a paper fish
to their friends' backs. When the "young fool" discovers this trick, the
prankster yells "Poisson d’Avril!" (April
Fish!)
Today Americans play small tricks on friends
and strangers alike on the first of April. One common trick on April
Fool's Day, or All Fool's Day, is pointing down
to a friend's shoe and saying, "Your shoelace is untied." Teachers in the
nineteenth century used to say to pupils, "Look! A flock of geese!" and
point up. School children might tell a classmate that school has been
canceled. Whatever the trick, if the innocent victim falls for the joke
the prankster yells, "April Fool! "
The "fools' errands" we play on people are
practical jokes. Putting salt in the sugar bowl for the next person is not
a nice trick to play on a stranger. College students set their clocks an
hour behind, so their roommates show up to the wrong class - or not at
all. Some practical jokes are kept up the whole day before the victim
realizes what day it is. Most April Fool jokes
are in good fun and not meant to harm anyone. The most
clever April Fool joke is the one where everyone laughs, especially
the person upon whom the joke is played.
And
yet another version:
Unlike most of the other
non-foolish holidays, the history of April
Fool's Day, sometimes called All Fool's Day, is
not totally clear. There really wasn't a "first April Fool's Day" that can
be pinpointed on the calendar. Some believe it sort of evolved
simultaneously in several cultures at the same time, from celebrations
involving the first day of spring.
The closest point in time that can be
identified as the beginning of this tradition was in 1582, in
France. Prior to that year, the new year
was celebrated for eight days, beginning on March 25. The celebration
culminated on April 1. With the reform of the calendar under Charles IX,
the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New
Year's Day was moved to January 1.
However, communications being
what they were in the days when news traveled by foot, many people did not
receive the news for several years. Others, the more
obstinate crowd, refused to accept the new calendar and continued to
celebrate the new year on April 1. These
backward folk were labeled as "fools" by the general populace. They were
subject to some ridicule, and were often sent on "fools
errands" or were made the butt of other practical jokes.
This harassment evolved, over time, into a
tradition of prank-playing on the first day of April. The tradition
eventually spread to England and Scotland in the eighteenth
century. It was later introduced to the American colonies of both the
English and French. April Fool's Day thus
developed into an international fun fest, so to speak, with different
nationalities specializing in their own brand of humor at the expense of
their friends and families.
In Scotland, for example,
April Fool's Day is actually celebrated for two
days. The second day is devoted to pranks involving the posterior region
of the body. It is called Taily Day. The
origin of the "kick me" sign can be traced to this observance.
Mexico's counterpart of April
Fool's Day is actually observed on December 28.
Originally, the day was a sad remembrance of the slaughter of the innocent
children by King Herod. It eventually evolved into a lighter commemoration
involving pranks and trickery.
Pranks performed on April
Fool's Day range from the simple, (such as
saying, "Your shoe's untied!), to the elaborate. Setting a roommate's
alarm clock back an hour is a common gag. Whatever the prank, the
trickster usually ends it by yelling to his victim, "April Fool!"
Practical jokes are a common practice on
April Fool's Day. Sometimes, elaborate
practical jokes are played on friends or relatives that last the entire
day. The news media even gets involved. For instance, a British short film
once shown on April Fool's Day was a fairly
detailed documentary about "spaghetti farmers" and how they harvest their
crop from the spaghetti trees.
April Fool's Day
is a "for-fun-only" observance. Nobody is expected to buy gifts or to take
their "significant other" out to eat in a fancy restaurant. Nobody gets
off work or school. It's simply a fun little holiday, but a holiday on
which one must remain forever vigilant, for he may be the next April
Fool!
Copyright
© 2000, 2001 by Jerry
Wilson
Was That a Joke?
Pranks succeed because the trickster causes his victims to believe--
temporarily-- in an alternate reality. Sometimes a "trick" is
unintentional. For example, in 1938, a filmmaker named Orson Wells created
a false reality for many people across the nation. He did so by staging a
radio production of H.G. Wells' War of
the Worlds, a book about a Martian invasion of Earth. The
adaptation was read as a news bulletin and caused widespread panic across
the country when listeners tuned into the station after it was announced
that the broadcast was a staged event.
Top Ten April Fool’s Hoaxes of All Time
The Jester
More on the unofficial symbol
for April Fool's Day
JESTER,
n. An officer formerly attached
to a king's household, whose business it was to amuse the court by
ludicrous actions and utterances, the absurdity being attested by his
motley costume. The king himself being attired with dignity, it took the
world some centuries to discover that his own conduct and decrees were
sufficiently ridiculous for the amusement not only of his court but of all
mankind. The jester was commonly called a fool, but the poets and
romancers have ever delighted to represent him as a singularly wise and
witty person. In the circus of to-day the melancholy ghost of the court
fool effects the dejection of humbler audiences with the same jests
wherewith in life he gloomed the marble hall, panged the patrician sense
of humor and tapped the tank of royal tears.
The widow-queen of Portugal
Who entered the confessional
Disguised, and there confessed her.
"Father," she said, "thine ear bend down --
My sins are more than scarlet:
I love my fool -- blaspheming clown,
And common, base-born varlet."
"Daughter," the mimic priest replied,
"That sin, indeed, is awful:
The church's pardon is denied
To love that is unlawful.
"But since thy stubborn heart will be
For him forever pleading,
Thou'dst better make him, by decree,
A man of birth and breeding."
She made the fool a duke, in hope
With Heaven's taboo to palter;
Then told a priest, who told the Pope,
Who damned her from the altar!
The Jester Pages
Jonathan The Jester –
1999 Jester of the Year
Court Jesters
So ... as you go
out on April first, beware!
...and to
really "fool" folks, why not try one of these...
Send a
friend a greeting card
Call your mother and/or
your father
Leave a
kind note in an online guestbook
Bake
cookies and give them to someone that needs cheering up
Call an
elderly neighbor
Pay the
next toll/coffee/soda
Leave a
cheery note in dressing rooms/on desks/etc.
Surprise
neighbors with packs of flower seeds
Donate
food to the local food bank
Volunteer
at a soup kitchen
Offer to
baby-sit for a young mother to allow her some free time
Hold the
door open for someone
Smile at
someone
Donate
blood
World
Kindness Day November 13, 2002
World
Kindness Week November 11 - 17, 2002
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