April Fools
01/04/14 05:29
I guess that the weather conditions were pretty nasty out in the country with blowing snow and low visibilities yesterday. But we didn’t feel many ill effects of the blizzard the closed area schools and kept folks inside. We didn’t have anywhere to go and we did have a power outage for an hour or so, but there was no real inconvenience here. We were working on preparing our tax return and had plenty to keep us occupied. We even have a battery backup for our Internet and phone that is good for four hours or so and had uninterrupted access during the power failure. By mid afternoon more than half of the driveway was cleared of snow by the sun and wind and shoveling the other half just took a few minutes.
The problem with a blizzard that wasn’t on March 31, is that I don’t know what to make of April Fool’s Day. The forecast is for snow showers throughout the day with the likelihood of snow increasing to about 80% overnight and continuing through tomorrow. I don’t think the forecasters are playing April Fool’s tricks on us, but I’m not too worried about the weather, either.
The origins of April Fool’s Day are a bit obscure. Most Internet articles cite the Medieval Feast of Fools, held December 28 among the origins of of the day of pranks and jokes. A few articles note the Roman festival of Hilaria, held March 25 as another precursor. I think that seeking a predominantly secular origin for the holiday is a product of people’s reluctance to associate all of the pranks and jokes with religion, but the religious origins of the holiday go back even farther than secular sources.
In the very early centuries of Christianity, the Greeks began a tradition of “Holy Humor Sunday” in the season of Easter. The basic idea was that the resurrection was the ultimate practical joke. Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa and John Chrysostom all referred to Risus Paschalis - the Easter laugh. The week following Easter, including “Bright Sunday” (the Sunday after Easter) was observed as a time of joy and laughter with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. It became a time to play practical jokes on pastors, tell jokes, sing songs and dance.
As the liturgies of the church became more formal and standardized, the practical jokes were downplayed and the celebrations centered on feasts, songs and liturgies. Many faithful church members and leaders forgot about the earlier traditions. In the 1980’s the tradition was re-discovered and a small movement of congregations began to revive the tradition and focused their attention on “Holy Humor Sunday” the Sunday following Easter. It is unclear how much of this was motivated by a desire to revive ancient traditions and how much was motivated by a desire to reverse the trend of dramatically falling church attendance after Easter. Whatever the motivations, the idea has received widespread acceptance in Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches around the world.
As a result it is really quite difficult to separate the secular “April Fool’s Day” from the more ancient, but more recently revised traditions of Bright Monday and Holy Humor Sunday.
But Easter is late this year. As it moves around the calendar, April 20 is a rather late day for the celebration of Easter. On the other hand it seems to suit at least the weather around here this year. It is hard telling what the weather will be like nearly three weeks from now, but one can hope that the snow will turn to rain and the ice will come out of the reservoirs and we’ll feel a bit more like spring has arrived.
It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if the weather would give us enough of a break to finish the construction around the entryway of the church. The project has taken weeks longer than we anticipated and we have high hopes of having a front door that is welcoming and inviting by the time Easter rolls around.
Beyond the specifics of pranks and jokes and other methods of celebrating, in the church Easter is much more than a day. It is a season. Easter continues through 50 days until Pentecost is celebrated on June 8 this year. Those weeks offer opportunities to sing the beloved Easter hymns, tell the multiple stories of Jesus’ resurrection and celebrate the triumph of life over death.
My father used to enjoy April Fools day pranks. We had our share of cardboard in the middle of pancakes, food coloring in milk and other breakfast-based pranks. It’s probably too late for this one this year, but the old standby of dissolving the cheese packet from a box of macaroni and cheese in a pitcher of cold water and leaving it in the refrigerator where it looks remarkably like orange juice will get you attention.
As my father struggled with the effects of the cancer that became the cause of his death he didn’t forget about April Fools day. That year he managed to glue down the end of the toilet tissue roll and laugh as my mother batted the roll trying to find an end to pull. I think there were a couple of other pranks that year as well.
For more elaborate pranks, you can always put hand lotion in a shampoo bottle or coat a bar of soap with clear nail polish to prevent lathering.
There are plenty of food jokes. Susan’s great grandmother used to make dipped chocolates and occasionally insert a cotton ball instead of the usual filling. It’s hard to get rid of a cotton ball in the mouth in polite company. A related prank is to make caramel apples and insert a stick into an onion and dip it into the caramel. It gives a pretty good surprise to the unsuspecting.
I’m sure that you will have no problem finding plenty of pranks, and by the time you read this blog, it may be too late. At least in the house where I grew up, all April Fools’ pranks had to be played before noon. Any pranks after noon rendered the prankster as the fool, not the recipient of the joke. I don’t know where that tradition came from.
If you’ve missed the day, there’s always Holy Humor Sunday. In general, however, I’d advise against getting too elaborate with the pranks against the pastor, however. There are quite a few more weeks in Easter and payback can be sweet.
The problem with a blizzard that wasn’t on March 31, is that I don’t know what to make of April Fool’s Day. The forecast is for snow showers throughout the day with the likelihood of snow increasing to about 80% overnight and continuing through tomorrow. I don’t think the forecasters are playing April Fool’s tricks on us, but I’m not too worried about the weather, either.
The origins of April Fool’s Day are a bit obscure. Most Internet articles cite the Medieval Feast of Fools, held December 28 among the origins of of the day of pranks and jokes. A few articles note the Roman festival of Hilaria, held March 25 as another precursor. I think that seeking a predominantly secular origin for the holiday is a product of people’s reluctance to associate all of the pranks and jokes with religion, but the religious origins of the holiday go back even farther than secular sources.
In the very early centuries of Christianity, the Greeks began a tradition of “Holy Humor Sunday” in the season of Easter. The basic idea was that the resurrection was the ultimate practical joke. Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa and John Chrysostom all referred to Risus Paschalis - the Easter laugh. The week following Easter, including “Bright Sunday” (the Sunday after Easter) was observed as a time of joy and laughter with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. It became a time to play practical jokes on pastors, tell jokes, sing songs and dance.
As the liturgies of the church became more formal and standardized, the practical jokes were downplayed and the celebrations centered on feasts, songs and liturgies. Many faithful church members and leaders forgot about the earlier traditions. In the 1980’s the tradition was re-discovered and a small movement of congregations began to revive the tradition and focused their attention on “Holy Humor Sunday” the Sunday following Easter. It is unclear how much of this was motivated by a desire to revive ancient traditions and how much was motivated by a desire to reverse the trend of dramatically falling church attendance after Easter. Whatever the motivations, the idea has received widespread acceptance in Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches around the world.
As a result it is really quite difficult to separate the secular “April Fool’s Day” from the more ancient, but more recently revised traditions of Bright Monday and Holy Humor Sunday.
But Easter is late this year. As it moves around the calendar, April 20 is a rather late day for the celebration of Easter. On the other hand it seems to suit at least the weather around here this year. It is hard telling what the weather will be like nearly three weeks from now, but one can hope that the snow will turn to rain and the ice will come out of the reservoirs and we’ll feel a bit more like spring has arrived.
It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if the weather would give us enough of a break to finish the construction around the entryway of the church. The project has taken weeks longer than we anticipated and we have high hopes of having a front door that is welcoming and inviting by the time Easter rolls around.
Beyond the specifics of pranks and jokes and other methods of celebrating, in the church Easter is much more than a day. It is a season. Easter continues through 50 days until Pentecost is celebrated on June 8 this year. Those weeks offer opportunities to sing the beloved Easter hymns, tell the multiple stories of Jesus’ resurrection and celebrate the triumph of life over death.
My father used to enjoy April Fools day pranks. We had our share of cardboard in the middle of pancakes, food coloring in milk and other breakfast-based pranks. It’s probably too late for this one this year, but the old standby of dissolving the cheese packet from a box of macaroni and cheese in a pitcher of cold water and leaving it in the refrigerator where it looks remarkably like orange juice will get you attention.
As my father struggled with the effects of the cancer that became the cause of his death he didn’t forget about April Fools day. That year he managed to glue down the end of the toilet tissue roll and laugh as my mother batted the roll trying to find an end to pull. I think there were a couple of other pranks that year as well.
For more elaborate pranks, you can always put hand lotion in a shampoo bottle or coat a bar of soap with clear nail polish to prevent lathering.
There are plenty of food jokes. Susan’s great grandmother used to make dipped chocolates and occasionally insert a cotton ball instead of the usual filling. It’s hard to get rid of a cotton ball in the mouth in polite company. A related prank is to make caramel apples and insert a stick into an onion and dip it into the caramel. It gives a pretty good surprise to the unsuspecting.
I’m sure that you will have no problem finding plenty of pranks, and by the time you read this blog, it may be too late. At least in the house where I grew up, all April Fools’ pranks had to be played before noon. Any pranks after noon rendered the prankster as the fool, not the recipient of the joke. I don’t know where that tradition came from.
If you’ve missed the day, there’s always Holy Humor Sunday. In general, however, I’d advise against getting too elaborate with the pranks against the pastor, however. There are quite a few more weeks in Easter and payback can be sweet.