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Flippant Fools and Fanciful Follies
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Flippant Fools and Fanciful Follies Today, the first day of April, is fondly known as Aprils Fool’s Day and especially for the impish at heart, a day of tomfoolery, pranks, and practical jokes. Its origin is mostly hearsay, conjecture, and speculation, but then after all, what would history be without a certain amount of frivolous debate and unsubstantiated assumptions and impulsive conclusions?! I would venture to say, it could almost be likened to being married to a woman...  ...just sayin’...  Some will say it all started when the Georgian calendar was first introduced and “New Year’s Week” was moved from the end of the first quarter of the year to January 1st. However, I highly doubt that was the case because England didn’t adopt the Georgian Calendar until 1752 and the day of pranks was already well under way by that time. But then sound judgment and accurately recording history were never really strong suits for the Europeans anyway... IMHO  ...they have been known to have their own odd ways of thinking. Remember, they mistakenly thought the Boston Tea Party was part of a misguided revolution. But perhaps we were just sick and tired of toddling tea and wanted to guzzle piping hot coffee in the mornings with our breakfast... JEESH, give us a break already...  Another moderately amusing explanation of this particular origin is that the practice began during the reign of Constantine ‘The Great’. Is has been rumored that a group of court jesters and entertainers told the Roman emperor that they could do a better job of running the empire than he, which in truth would probably have been more accurate than comical. Constantine, apparently being thusly amused, allowed a jester named Kugel to be king for one day. Kugel allegedly issued a proclamation calling for silliness on that particular day, and the custom therefore became an annual event. Anyone who has ever studied the Roman Empire in any depth may not be so easily steered in that direction; convert to my way of thinking or die in the process of being transformed and redeemed. Think Holy Wars here. In Portugal, the days fell on the Sunday and Monday before Lent started. Their somewhat strange custom called for throwing flour at friends, which is kinda’ lame if you ask me, especially if you’re the one wearing the expensive dark blue pin stripe wool suit freshly back from the cleaners. Yeah, I’d be laughing too, all the while I choked THEM until THEY turned blue. In England, jokes took place only in the morning, and the target or victim of the joke was a “noodle.” Again, pretty weak unless your day starts really early and you get your jokes all in before anyone else does. Not that I would want to stay ahead of anyone or such a matter, but hey, if that’s the way it works out, well, then so be it.  But then again, the idea of being a public noodle isn’t in my list of top ten things I want to accomplish before I expire. For the French, the fool was at one time called the poisson (“fish” d’Avril (“of April” because a young and naïve fish is supposedly easily caught. Keep in mind now, the memory of a clever, wise and water worthy adult fish is approximately a full 5 seconds long. **shrugs** In addition, so hearsay has it, one common practice was to hook a paper fish on the back of someone as a joke. (Remember the opening scenes of The French Connection?) Legend also has it that some people wanted to celebrate a holiday even though New Year’s Day officially had been changed to January 1st. Those people were unkindly but fittingly tagged ‘fools’ by the general masses and were subject to ridicule and sent on ‘fools’ errands. But what else can ya do when all ya wanna do is to celebrate sumphin goofy?There are yet others who still argue that it sprang up world wide both simultaneously and spontaneously in a nearly overwhelming self-empowered universal show of flippancy. It is their contention that it’s the cosmos’s way of celebrating the spring equinox, but those I would guess, have never genuinely looked an ANY calendar...ever...check the dates of both, I think you will see what I mean. Basically it was the idea that jokes and monkeyshines added lightheartedness to the ever boring equinox parties. But then isn’t that true of most droning parties? If special days were set aside every time I lightened the mood at a dull party with a stupid antic...err, I mean, with a sophisticated act of witty merriment, I’m afraid there would be no days left that would ever be considered ‘normal’ days again. So, regardless of how or why April Fool’s Day began, or why it still continues on to this day, I hope the day was a really good one for you. Whether at the giving or receiving end of a goof, always hold your head up, smile and know that what goes around eventually comes around. And no, I’m not a geek, my grey matter is only filled to overflowing with nearly mind<b> numbing </font></b>useless information that has no pragmatic value or significance to the general public. APRIL FOOLS! I am a geek...but then, I sure some of you knew that already, didn’t you? !  H.  Thanks for takin’ the time and makin’ the effort, c’ya next time!  MOOD: GOOFY Horny4770  |
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 you a geek..never thought of you that way. so we still don't know where this silly holiday came from ? I was actually wondering this yesterday. without a certain amount of frivolous debate and unsubstantiated assumptions and impulsive conclusions?! I would venture to say, it could almost be likened to being married to a woman... ...just sayin’...  maybe married to a girl but not a real woman
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of course well maybe alittle bit of truth in it though.
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