April 1, 2017
Lenten Devotions – April Fools’ Day

Don’t you often wonder where odd and interesting traditions originate? You may not, but I do. And one of those interesting and odd traditions is April Fools’ Day. Apparently on this day, April 1, 1700, the tradition of pulling pranks on one another on the first day of April began……….well, maybe. We can blame the English for popularizing the practice.

“Although the day…called All Fools’ Day has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, its exact origins remain a mystery. Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes. These included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as “poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.

Historians have also linked April Fools’ Day to ancient festivals such as Hilaria, which was celebrated in Rome at the end of March and involved people dressing up in disguises. There’s also speculation that April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather.

April Fools’ Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. In Scotland, the tradition became a two-day event, starting with “hunting the gowk,” in which people were sent on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for fool) and followed by Tailie Day, which involved pranks played on people’s derrieres, such as pinning fake tails or “kick me” signs on them. In modern times, people have gone to great lengths to create elaborate April Fools’ Day hoaxes. Newspapers, radio and TV stations and Web sites have participated in the April 1 tradition of reporting outrageous fictional claims that have fooled their audiences. In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop and showed footage of people harvesting noodles from trees; numerous viewers were fooled (I was not born yet so I did not fall for this prank). In 1985, Sports Illustrated tricked many of its readers when it ran a made-up article about a rookie pitcher named Sidd Finch who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour (I personally fell for that one). In 1996, Taco Bell, the fast-food restaurant chain, duped people when it announced it had agreed to purchase Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell and intended to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell (I did not fall for that one). In 1998, after Burger King advertised a “Left-Handed Whopper,” scores of clueless customers requested the fake sandwich (I missed this one).” (This Day in History, history.com website)

Some time before the turn of the new millennia (I believe) radio personality R. J. Harris (famous for his April Fools’ Day pranks), announced that people had reported seeing dolphins swimming in the Susquehanna. It was reported that many people swarmed to the banks of the river looking for errant dolphins. I live in fear of forgetting that it is April 1st – for I have been known to fall for such gimmickry (but not the dolphins thank the Lord).

This week please collect a tube of toothpaste each day for Trinity’s Table and bring them into church on Sunday April 2.

Pastor Dave