this super funny picture & The French History of April Fools Day
Blame Pope Gregory XIII and a calendar if you find yourself the target of an April fools joke. Until the 1500s, the Julian calendar was used to mark the days. The first day of the year began around March 25th on the Julian calendar. This date coincided with beginnings of spring and annual spring celebrations of light returning to the earth. France adopted the new Gregorian calendar in 1582, which made the first day of the new year January first. The story goes that peasants in the outlying rural areas had no knowledge of the change. Others refused to accept the new fangled calendar. New Year’s week, March 25th to April first continued to be celebrated. The sophisticated Frenchmen dubbed their ignorant compatriots, “fools.”
The “fools” were sent bogus invitations to non-existent New Year’s celebrations on April first. The “fools” became known as “poisson d’Avril” translated to April fish. Why fish? Young fish lack the experience to escape the hook. A favorite hoax was to attach a paper fish to the back of someone without his or her knowledge. The practice of playing jokes on others on April 1st spread to the rest of Europe.
HUH! WHO KNEW? DID ANYBODY GET PRANKED TODAY? OR DID YOU PLAY A JOKE ON SOMEONE ELSE?
6 comments:
I love this! Thanks for the information. I don't get into huge volumes of history but I love to read little tidbits. I hadn't realized it was April Fool's Day today. Somebody could've tricked me bad this morning! Thanks for the warning. =o)
Thanks for the little lesson. I loved it. I always wondered why we had April Fool's Day.
I looked at your other blog a couple of days ago but the kids needed me and I couldn't leave a message. You're an amazing photographer. I'm sure you'll go really far with it.
Thanks for the history lesson...I love learning something new everyday!
We got Chris really good today. We had someone call him and tell him that something was wrong with the foundation and that they were not going to be able to keep framing...chris totally fell for it and told the guy that he would be right there, he was leaving work and that he was going to call me right away. Poor guy is so gallible! :)
Fun to read! I love April Fools, but unfortunately forgot to play any pranks--next year, I am going to do something REALLY good.
I love April Fools! You can check out my blog for evidence of the jokes we played!
Those pictures are so freakin cute!!! That baby is adorable. Halli looks so pretty. You did an awesome job on her pics. I'm sad those invitations didn't turn out! grrrr. Well see ya tomorrow!! Love ya!
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