Today is April Fools’ Day. Though not considered a holiday, the day has come to be associated with the commission of practical jokes of varying forms, mainly performed on unsuspecting friends and close relatives. Typically, the joke involves influencing someone close to a person to do a fools’ errand, the purpose of which is to embarrass a gullible person.
Much is uncertain about the origin of April Fools’ Day. The popular belief is that it began around 1582 in France with the amendment of the calendar under Charles X. The Gregorian calendar was adopted and New Year’s Day was moved from March 25 to April 1 (new year’s week) to January 1. At that time, communication traveled at a slow pace and some people only came to know of the change several years later. However, there were more rebellious people who refused to recognize the change and continued to celebrate on the last day of the former celebration, April 1. These people were regarded as “fools” by the general public, were ridiculed and sent on “fool errands,” sent invitations to nonexistent parties and had other practical jokes played upon them.
This harassment and the custom of playing pranks on unsuspecting victims continued and evolved over time and eventually, the tradition spread to other countries. April Fools’ Day in Scotland, for example, is devoted to spoofs concerning the buttocks and, thus is called Taily Day. The victim of these jokes are called April ‘Gowk,’ another name for cuckoo bird. In Rome, the holiday is known as the Festival of Hilaria, in celebration of the resurrection of the god Attis. It is celebrated every March 25 and is also called “Roman Laughing Day.” In England, jokes are played only in the morning. It was considered bad luck to play a joke on someone after noon. Fools are called ‘gobs’ or ‘gobby’ and the victim of a joke is called a ‘noodle.’
Here in the Philippines, there are two days when it is acceptable to play practical jokes. The first is on December 28, the Feast of the Holy Innocents. And the other one is, of course, today. Unlike other foreign traditions and celebrations that we have inherited, however, April Fools’ Day has not been able to catch the fancy of Filipinos. There may be a few who try to perform a few practical jokes on their friends, but generally, it is not practiced consistently by the public.
Now that I’m 83, the first thing that comes to my mind during this day are the elderly people. They say that old fools are the biggest fools. Why? Because they’ve had more experience.