No kidding, it's April Fools' Day

source: manila bulletin

MANILA, Philippines – As you check your Facebook account on this calm Friday morning, you may be in for a big surprise.

Suddenly, you may read that your happily married friend’s status changed to single, or your shy and timid classmate announcing her pregnancy, or the guy of your dream liking guys, too! But before you post that violent comment, what day is it again?

Someone might even borrow some amount from you and won’t return it.

But don’t be surprised. It’s just the day of the year when fun-loving Filipinos do their pranks with the legal excuse, “Happy April Fools’ Day!”

But how did all these tomfoolery started?

In the website www.april-fools.us, the history of April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is uncertain. But some believed that it began around 1582 in France. A year before that, New Year was celebrated for eight days beginning on March 25 to April 1.

However, with the reform of the calendar under Charles IX, when the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, New Year's Day was moved to January 1.

Yet, due to slow communications being traveled by foot and reaching people for several years, there are those who still celebrate the New Year on April 1. Thus, they were labeled “fools” and became subjects of ridicule, and were often sent on “fools’ errands” or were made the butt of other practical jokes. The butts of these pranks became known as a “poisson d'avril” or “April fish: because a young naive fish is easily caught. In addition, one common practice was to hook a paper fish on the back of someone as a joke.

Since then, this prank-playing continued over time on the first day of April.

In recent years, this tradition eventually spread all over the globe.

In Scotland, for instance, April Fools' Day is devoted to spoofs involving the buttocks and as such is called Taily Day. The butts of these jokes are known as April “Gowk”, another name for cuckoo bird. The origins of the “Kick Me” sign can be traced back to the Scottish observance.

In England, jokes are played only in the morning. Fools are called “gobs” or “gobby” and the victim of a joke is called a “noodle.” It was considered back luck to play a practical joke on someone after noon.

In Rome, the holiday is known as Festival of Hilaria, celebrating the resurrection of the god Attis, is on March 25 and is also referred to as “Roman Laughing Day.”

In Portugal, April Fools' Day falls on the Sunday and Monday before lent. In this celebration, many people throw flour at their friends.

The Huli Festival is celebrated on March 31 in India. People play jokes on one another and smear colors on one another celebrating the arrival of Spring.

In Poland, prima aprilis (“April 1” in Latin) is a day full of jokes; various hoaxes are prepared by people, media (which sometimes cooperate to make the “information” more credible) and even public institutions. Serious activities are usually avoided. This conviction is so strong that the anti-Turkish alliance with Leopold I signed on April 1, 1683, was backdated to March 31.

In Denmark, the 1st of May is known as “Maj-kat”, meaning “May-cat”, and is historically identical to April Fools' Day. However, Danes also celebrate April Fools' Day (“aprilsnar”), and pranks on May 1st are much less frequent.

In Spain and Ibero-America, an equivalent date is December 28, Christian day of celebration of the Massacre of the Innocents. The Christian celebration is a holiday in its own right, a religious one, but the tradition of pranks is not, though the latter is observed yearly. After somebody plays a joke or a prank on somebody else, the joker usually cries out, in some regions of Ibero-America: "Inocente palomita que te dejaste engañar" (You innocent little dove that let yourself be fooled). In Spain it is common to say just "Inocente!" (Innocent!). Nevertheless in the Spanish island of Menorca "Dia d'enganyar" ('Fooling day') is celebrated on the 1st of April because Menorca was a British possession during part of the 18th century.

Mexico's counterpart of April Fools’ Day is also 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.

The Philippines also observes December 28 as the Holy Innocent-Martyrs feast day, more commonly known as “Niños Inocentes” which is the country’s second April Fools’ Day, though, the religious community insisted that both events are not similar.

In a Manila Bulletin story published last year, Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez said the observance of the Niños Inocentes is in remembrance of the martyrdom of infants who gave up their lives to save the new-born Savior, and is not in any way connected to playing jokes or tricks on people.

April Fools’ Day is not a well-observed day in the Philippines. But that makes it all the more exciting when people barely realize that it is a time when people crack jokes on others but will always be forgiven. After all, it is a day to have a little fun out of anything. But remember to be cautious on cracking jokes on people as you may reap the same.

source: manila bulletin