April Fools Day

April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day, although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1st. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies and neighbours, or sending them on fools errand, the aim of which is to embarras the gullible. Traditionally, in some countries, the jokes only last until noon: like UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, someone who plays a trick after noon is called an "April Fool". Elsewhere, such as in Ireland, France, and the USA, the jokes last all day.

The origin of April Fools' Day is obscure.

• One likely theory is that the modern holiday was first celebrated soon after the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar; the term referred to someone still adhering to the Julian Calendar, which it replaced. The Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved from March 25 - April 1 (new year's week) to January 1.
• In many pre-Christian cultures May Day (May 1) was celebrated as the first day of summer, and signalled the start of the spring planting season. An April Fool was someone who did this prematurely.
• Another origin is that April 1 was counted the first day of the year in France. When King Charles IX changed that to January 1, some people stayed with April 1. Those who did were called "April Fools" and were taunted by their neighbors.
• In the eighteenth century the festival was often posited as going back to the times of Noah. An English newspaper article published on April 13th, 1789 said that the day had its origins when he sent the raven off too early, before the waters had receded. He did this on the first day of the Hebrew month that corresponds with April.

Today would have been my dad's 70th Birthday!!! And believe you me he was nobody's fool. He always had to endure more of the pranks because it was his birthday, God bless him. He's still missed very much...

Something for you to think about:

Real friends are those who, when you feel you've made a fool of yourself,

don't feel you've done a permanent job.