April 1st celebrated as April Fool's Day has many supposed origins, including the change of the calendar in the 1500s from the Julian to the Gregorian. This change caused New Years to be celebrated January 1st instead of April 1st. The fools were those who still celebrated the new year on the wrong day.
There are more less pausible reasons for its origin but I tend to agree with this one due to its logic.
To read more about the possible origins of April Fools, see what Snopes.com has to say about it. I enjoyed learning about the spaghetti harvest that came early in 1957. The harvest was abundant due to the conquering of the ravenous spaghetti weevils.
Museum of Hoaxes.com has a collection for your reading pleasure of the Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of all time. #1 on the list is the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest. I borrowed the photo from their site after reading about it on Snopes.com. If you have a bit of reading time today, I hope you get the chance to indulge.
Of course, April 1, 1958 was a most special day. It was the day that my darling husband was born, and that is not a joke. His mother said that he was supposed to be born in late March, but he held out for diamonds, the birth stone for April. He has told me several times that he hated his birthday when growing up as no one would believe it was his birthday. So, for all those who have the special day of April 1st for a birthday, Happy Birthday and I hope it will be the best day of your life!
April 1 is additionally the anniversary of the release of two books in the ShadowsForge Series, Three Times a Hero in 2006 and Retaking America in 2007.
Three Times a Hero was #1 Reader's Choice at Whiskey Creek Press that month.
Retaking America was deemed a "Recommended Read" by Fallen Angel Reviews. No bad luck there.
I'd say that in my life, April Fool's Day has been an extremely positive twenty-four hour period.
Cheers!
2 comments:
I like the calendar explanation, too, but were they really so foolish? They just got to celebrate the new year twice! Tell your hubby happy b-day!
We used to do goofy things in school back in the fifties and sixties on April Fools Day. I wonder if the tradition carries on with the kids today. Very interesting post.
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