April Fools' Day will be over tomorrow, or will it?

Mirror News UK/Jo-Anne Rowney, 4/1/17,  "Happy April Fools' Day 2017! What is the origin behind it, top facts, best pranks and why we celebrate the tradition." 

Oh boy, someone rearranged my face!

"It's April Fool's Day, which means being on your guard to avoid those practical jokes. It's a tradition that goes back hundreds of years, but where did it all start? There are many theories but the one that most hold to links back to a pope - though it isn't a religious holiday. Where did it all start then? Why do we celebrate it?...and what can we do to be crowned best prankster (you know you want to know)? How did April Fool's Day begin?

While no one really agrees on what happened, there is strong evidence that it is all down to Pope Gregory XIII, who adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582 - this moved our year from March to Jan 1.  The change was published far and wide, but some didn't get the memo. These people celebrated the New Year on April 1 and were ridiculed and seen as foolish - hence Fool's Day. The French would put paper fish on the 'fool's' backs and were called Poisson d'Avril, or April Fish - it's still the term used in France for April Fool's."  Read article.

Reference, historical background. History.com/Lead Story, "1700 April Fools tradition popularized. "On this day in 1700, English pranksters begin popularizing the annual tradition of April Fools’ Day by playing practical jokes on each other. Although the day, also called All Fools’ Day, has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, its exact origins remain a mystery. Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes. These included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as “poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.
Historians have also linked April Fools’ Day to ancient festivals such as Hilaria, which was celebrated in Rome at the end of March and involved people dressing up in disguises. There’s also speculation that April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather."

Related articles.  The Verge/Chaim Gartenberg, 4/1/17, "April Fools' Day 2017: the best (and worst) pranks." "April 1st — a day colloquially known as 'April Fools’ Day' or 'the worst holiday ever'..." CBS News, 4/1/17, "Russian government posts April Fools' Day prank offering 'election interference'." "MOSCOW -- Need some election interference? The Russian Foreign Ministry is ready to help -- or so it says on April Fools’ Day. .... Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday emphatically denied allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election."    Note graphic smiley face image to The Last Refuge.

Posted by Kathy Meeh