Yes, I’m back. And none too soon. It’s April 1st, one of our best national holidays, known far and wide as April Fools’ Day. The origins of this holiday allegedly go back to ancient times when the year began in Spring instead of Winter. As life began anew, the people would celebrate new beginnings on or around the Spring Equinox, and by doing so, would welcome the new year, much the way the ponies do in Equestria as they wrap up winter.
However, as the Christian religion became more and more prevalent (again, this is allegedly, for we really don’t know), the Church began to usurp what they viewed as pagan religions by creating their own religions which took place at the same time. By offering worshipers food, drink and entertainment, the church sought to draw people away from such celebrations as Yule, beltane, Samhain and Midsummer. The church created the holidays of Christmas (to replace Yule), Easter (to replace Beltane), All Saints’ Day (to replace Samhain) and the Feast of St. John the Baptist (to replace midsummer celebrations such as Litha.
Again, while many scholars believe that this was the church’s intent, others suggest that the Christian holidays were independent of, and not chosen to subvert, the pagan celebrations. Personally, my irritation with Christian and especially Catholic dogma leads me to believe that the intent was certainly there.
In any case, the church (again, allegedly,) moved the New Year to January. However, people still celebrated the new year in April, and were thus laughed at by their Christian contemporaries for being “fools.”
I should point out however, that Wikipedia specifically says “The earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness can be found in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1392). Many writers suggest that the restoration of January 1 as New Year’s Day in the 16th century was responsible for the creation of the holiday, but this theory does not explain earlier references.” This from the third paragraph of Wikipedia’s April Fools’ Day entry.
Either way, April Fools’ Day is usually “celebrated” by the playing of pranks on people such as filling a friend’s boots with shaving cream or filling an employer’s office with balloons. Some pranks are harmless, while others such as the egging of houses or toilet-papering of trees can be extremely annoying and difficult to clean up, and of course, the perennial burning-bag-of-dog-poo-at-the-front-door, which can result in a biohazard situation.
I don’t “celebrate” April Fools’ Day, as I have both been the victim of pranks, and have played pranks on others which I thought would be innocent jokes, but which turned out to be more harmful than I initially expected. Putting the phrase “Caution: your computer is infected by a virus” into the batch file intended to start a game on one of my high-school computers wound up causing a small panic as the administrators barred all access to the only two IBM PCs in the computer lab for a week, looking for a virus that wasn’t there.
Although in retrospect, making administrators panic over nothing is, while not harmless, one of the most noble and valorous forms of pranks one can pull. If they’re stupid enough to panic rather than utilizing logic and seeking a solution, they deserve to be panicked.
This obviously doesn’t work on the scale of local, state or national governments, as even placing Saran Wrap® over the President’s toilet seat could be viewed as an act of terrorism. And toilet-papering the White House will get you a one-way ticket straight to Gitmo.
So anyway, happy April Fools’ Day, and I hope to update more often than I have within the last few months…
