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April Fool's Day
Playing tricks on others goes way, way back. We get our word "jovial" from the great god Jove who is said to have been quite a jokester up there on the Big O. Looking to spice up the blandness of omnipotence, so to speak, he once confronted Vulcan and pointed to an imaginary spot on this lesser deity's toga, bidding him behold, for, yea, the raiment was soiled with ash from the Heavenly Forge. When the Fire God looked down, the Jovial One brought his index-finger up and flicked him one right in the old schnozzola! Verily, the welkins rangeth all over the placeth with the sound of celestial guffaws and congratulatory high–fiveing. Vulcan, on the other hand—a sorehead at best—erupted and destroyed the Minoan civilization on Crete. There is no evidence that any of this happened on April First, so–called "April Fools' " or "All–Fools' Day". In fact, there is no certainty why any of this takes place on April First, at all. There was the festival of Hilaria in ancient Rome (hot-footing sandals, getting locked in the vomitorium—that sort of thing, one supposes) and a similar Hindu festival called Holi. Both of these took place on or close to the Vernal Equinox. What better time to play tricks than a time of the year when Nature, herself, does the same? A more prosaic explanation is that when various cultures went over to calendars that moved the celebration of the New Year from the spring back to January first, news traveled so slowly that there were still plenty of people who sent New Year's greetings and gifts at the wrong time of the year and this degenerated into the sending of mock gifts to the "fools" who didn't even know when the year started. In Italy the April Fool is called "Pesce d'aprile"
(April fish). This stems from the fact that an
increase of young fish is noted at this time of year
and the young fish are easily "hooked". Or at least
that's the story, but I heard it on April Fool's Day,
so who knows? Fortunately, April Fool's Day is not
much of an Italian custom, much less one particular to
Naples. There is a day for playing stupid practical
jokes on people; that is at carnevale—Mardi gras.
There is even a stupid bit of doggerel to cover it: "A
Carnevale ogni scherzo vale" (At Mardi gras, all
tricks are fair). That is when someone might spray you
with shaving cream or throw an egg at you. But there
don't seem to be any elaborate April Fool's pranks.
For example, in some places back when people still
drove buggies, and April Fool's Day happened to fall
on a Sunday, a favorite prank was to skip the service
and spend the time hitching horses up to the wrong
carriages and then stand around and watch the fun when
church let out. And the BBC once broadcast an April
Fool's documentary purporting to show, among other
things, the spaghetti "harvest" in Italy, including
footage of peasants happily picking the strands of
pasta directly from the trees. I don't recall any such
elaborate trickery on April Fool's day around
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Many glaciations ago, A
Neanderthal Person with a corresponding sense of humor
pasted prehistory's first "Please Club Me" sign to the
back of an unsuspecting fellow missing–link, whom
fun–loving passers–by then bludgeoned into gristle, a
process that garnered boffo yuks from the cave crowd.
"Whew! That silly chap certainly was some April Fool,
n'est-ce pas?", they chortled, thus naming a
month and starting a glorious tradition much loved by
all those who have ever found their shoes nailed to
the floor.