{"id":370,"date":"2010-04-01T00:00:52","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T00:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/angelsonyourshoulder\/2010\/04\/april-fools-day-history.html"},"modified":"2010-04-01T00:00:52","modified_gmt":"2010-04-01T00:00:52","slug":"april-fools-day-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/2010\/04\/april-fools-day-history.html","title":{"rendered":"April Fools Day history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy April Fools day. Have you ever wondered why April 1st is considered April Fools Day? I am sure the airwaves are full of April Fool’s jokes and you may have even had a prank pulled on you by now or concocted one yourself. In college I remember waking up from a long night of partying, turning on the radio and believing the joke of the year. I flew into a panic until I realized it was April 1st and I had been fooled.<\/p>\n

I am always fascinated by how things came to be so here is a bit of history about this day. Since angels take themselves lightly I am sure they must enjoy this day!<\/p>\n


\nThis is an excerpt from this April Fools Day website.<\/a> They have lots of fun stuff including suggestions for jokes and e cards.<\/p>\n

The history of
\nApril Fool’s Day or All Fool’s Day is
\nuncertain, but the current thinking is
\nthat it began around 1582 in France with
\nthe reform of the calendar under Charles
\nIX. The Gregorian Calendar was introduced,
\nand New Year’s Day was moved from March
\n25 – April 1 (new year’s week) to January
\n1. <\/p>\n

These people were
\nlabeled “fools” by the general
\npopulace, were subject to ridicule and
\nsent on “fool errands,” sent
\ninvitations to nonexistent parties and
\nhad other practical jokes played upon
\nthem. The butts of these pranks became
\nknown as a “poisson d’avril”
\nor “April fish” because a young
\nnaive fish is easily caught. In addition,
\none common practice was to hook a paper
\nfish on the back of someone as a joke.\n<\/p>\n

This harassment evolved
\nover time and a custom of prank-playing
\ncontinue on the first day of April. This
\ntradition eventually spread elsewhere like
\nto Britain and Scotland in the 18th century
\nand was introduced to the American colonies
\nby the English and the French. Because of
\nthis spread to other countries, April Fool’s
\nDay has taken on an international flavor
\nwith each country celebrating the holiday
\nin its own way.<\/p>\n

In Scotland, for
\ninstance, April Fool’s Day is devoted to
\nspoofs involving the buttocks and as such
\nis called Taily Day. The butts of these
\njokes are known as April ‘Gowk’, another
\nname for cuckoo bird. The origins of the
\n“Kick Me” sign can be traced back
\nto the Scottish observance.<\/p>\n

In England, jokes
\nare played only in the morning. Fools are
\ncalled ‘gobs’ or ‘gobby’ and the victim
\nof a joke is called a ‘noodle.’ It was considered
\nback luck to play a practical joke on someone
\nafter noon.<\/p>\n

In Rome, the holiday
\nis known as Festival of Hilaria, celebrating
\nthe resurrection of the god Attis, is on
\nMarch 25 and is also referred to as “Roman
\nLaughing Day.” <\/p>\n

In Portugal, April
\nFool’s Day falls on the Sunday and Monday
\nbefore lent. In this celebration, many people
\nthrow flour at their friends. <\/p>\n

The Huli Festival
\nis celebrated on March 31 in India. People
\nplay jokes on one another and smear colors
\non one another celebrating the arrival of
\nSpring.<\/p>\n

So, no matter where
\nyou happen to be in the world on April 1,
\ndon’t be surprised if April fools fall playfully
\nupon you.<\/p>\n

With love and aloha,
\nSusan<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Angels are everywhere just open your mind and your heart to the signs.<\/p>\n

Make Angels on Your Shoulder<\/a> part of your daily routine and share it with a friend! <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am always fascinated by how things came to be so here is a bit of history about April Fools Day. Since angels take themselves lightly I am sure they must enjoy this day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,26,14],"tags":[29,320],"class_list":["post-370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-angels","category-beliefs","category-prayers","tag-angels-2","tag-april-fools-day"],"yoast_head":"\nApril Fools Day history - Angels on Your Shoulder<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/2010\/04\/april-fools-day-history.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"April Fools Day history - Angels on Your Shoulder\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am always fascinated by how things came to be so here is a bit of history about April Fools Day. Since angels take themselves lightly I am sure they must enjoy this day!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/2010\/04\/april-fools-day-history.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Angels on Your Shoulder\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-01T00:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Susan Gregg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"April Fools Day history - Angels on Your Shoulder","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/2010\/04\/april-fools-day-history.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"April Fools Day history - Angels on Your Shoulder","og_description":"I am always fascinated by how things came to be so here is a bit of history about April Fools Day. Since angels take themselves lightly I am sure they must enjoy this day!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/2010\/04\/april-fools-day-history.html","og_site_name":"Angels on Your Shoulder","article_published_time":"2010-04-01T00:00:52+00:00","author":"Susan Gregg","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/2010\/04\/april-fools-day-history.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/2010\/04\/april-fools-day-history.html","name":"April Fools Day history - Angels on Your Shoulder","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-04-01T00:00:52+00:00","dateModified":"2010-04-01T00:00:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/#\/schema\/person\/b87299a8cec940d47d994d9cb2ccb40c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/2010\/04\/april-fools-day-history.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/2010\/04\/april-fools-day-history.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/2010\/04\/april-fools-day-history.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"April Fools Day history"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/","name":"Angels on Your Shoulder","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Susan Gregg","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/#\/schema\/person\/b87299a8cec940d47d994d9cb2ccb40c","name":"Susan Gregg","description":"Susan Greggis an author, Karuna Reiki Master, and Nagual Woman. She has written eight books including the award-winning \"Mastering the Toltec Way\" and \"The Encyclopedia of Angels, Spirit Guides and Ascended Masters.\" Susan completed an apprenticeship with Don Miguel Ruiz, author of \"The Four Agreements,\" and she has been exploring spirituality, human potential, and the nature of physical and metaphysical reality since the early 1970s. Her greatest passion is showing others how they can be happy, no matter what is going on in their lives or in the world around them. This passion has resulted in her creating a podcast, \"Food for the Soul,\" and numerous video meditations. Susan's spiritual journeys have also taken her around the world with students she teaches. Currently, she lives on the beautiful island of Hawaii where she is an avid gardener, hiker, and writer. She often spends time playing with the numerous four-legged friends she's rescued or swimming with the turtles and wild dolphins. Follow me on twitter","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/author\/sgregg"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/angelsonyourshoulder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}