Who’s the April Fool?
As I sit down to my computer on this cold, rainy/snowy, dreary day, I pine for yesterday. When the sun was bright, beautiful and warm. It got me thinking about the origin of the April Fool pranks. It’s long since I’ve been duped on April Fool’s Day, especially after my shenaniganmeister son moved away from home. Oh, I still got the annual phone call from college. Typically, I fell for the prank, happier to hear from my too busy to call home son, than paying attention to the date let alone the ridiculous content of his prank.
Curious about the origin of April Fool’s Day, I tuned into a reliable source (the history channel) to get the answer to my question. I found mostly speculation. Most theories revolved around the confusion that occurred when the dominant culture changed the first calendar day of the new year. Moving from the practiced spring or vernal equinox (in the Northern Hemisphere) to January one messed up a lot of people. Hence, a tradition for pranking was born.
April Fool
I rather like the idea of the spring or vernal equinox which occurs around March 21 marking the first day of the new year. It makes a heck of a lot more sense. Hot on the heels of the winter solstice, January one is about as close to the dead of winter as you can get.
There is also evidence to support that April Fools’ Day was tied to the Vernal equinox, because of Mother Nature’s trickery fooling people with changing, unpredictable weather. Now, that’s a theory I can relate to.
As the thermostat reaches the forties here in the banana belt of Minnesota, it’s not uncommon to see us northerner strutting around in shorts, tee-shirt and sandals with socks while out for a walk. College kids flock to Lake Winona, laying out on blankets, lawn chairs and hammocks trying to establish a base tan before heading south for spring break. The neighborhood is filled with the aroma of charcoal grilling. People who don’t have to hibernate for the winter would naturally consider this foolish behavior, for me, this is how you get that vitamin D.
Comedian, Charlie Berens, among other distinguished credentials, illustrates this perfectly in a YouTube video, Spring verses Winter.
It’s true, spring is merely an extension of winter, fooling us with a couple of warm days here and there, luring us northerner out of hibernation only to be disappointed twelve hours later with a snowstorm. We love you spring only because you’re not winter. What we really want is SUMMER.
Quick plug: If you’re looking for a good laugh and like a Midwest brand of humor, check out the Manitowoc Minute. Charlie has also hooked up with the Betcha guy, Myles Montplaisir; Dude Dad, Tyler Calmus and the Holderness family (winner of the Amazing Race season thirty-three), Penn Holderness; funny stuff. Their Husbands of Target video, “Charlie’s beef jerky was the start of it,” hysterical.
Final Thoughts
So, as the sun shifts northward across the celestial equator, I eagerly await the warmer weather, throwing open windows and cleaning out the storage space, aka, spring cleaning. Delightfully, since selling the house, I get to look forward to packing the RV and heading to the park instead of spending precious warm spring days in a dusty attic.
