By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@thecitizennews.com

There was a time when April Fool's Day had a lot of meaning.

The first of April was celebrated as the beginning of the New Year for people in 16th century France, until Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar in 1562. From then on people celebrated the New Year Jan. 1 and those that did not change over to the new tradition were called the April Fools.

Since then April Fool's Day has blossomed into an extravaganza of pranks. Each country has its own traditon for the holiday and, without a doubt, America puts the most creative energy into it.

The current trend in France is to tape a paper fish to the back of a person. When the victim finds the paper fish, the prankster shouts “poisson d'avril” or “April Fish.” In England, pranks are allowed only during the morning and the person who gets pranked is considered to be the noodle.

Scotland's April Fool's day celebration lasts for two days. If you get pranked, you are considered to be the April Gowk, which is a cuckoo bird. The second day of April Fool's day celbration in Scotland is called Taily Day and all the pranks involve the buttocks. One example is the classic “Kick Me” sign being placed on one's posterior.

As for the United States, the pranks around here are used to trick people into believing things that are completely untrue. Publications run fake articles about people running for office, half truths are stretched to test the gullibility of friends and family and pranks are pulled throughout the day.

Some classic pranks that have made their mark on our nation are the whoopee cushion, the joy buzzer, fake blood and fish-flavored gum.

Mark Twain once said, “The first day of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days a year.” We may be fools, but the fun is finding out who is the bigger fool.

By the way, don't forget to set your clocks back on Friday night.

Back to the Top of the PageBack to the Weekend Home Page