EDITORIAL
APRIL FOOL'S DAY
This year April Fools’ Day falls during the first week of the school Easter holidays allowing teachers to breathe a sigh of relief.
It’s possible that people have ‘celebrated’ this day in many countries for hundreds of years.
Possible origins of April Fools’ Day include
i) the Roman Festival of Hilaria which honoured the Roman goddess Cybele and the god Attis. At this festival people enjoyed dressing in costumes as well as playing practical jokes;
Ii) the Vernal Equinox also called the Spring Equinox. This is a time of year when the weather plays tricks on us;
iii) the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar in 1582 because it was slightly inaccurate, drifting by about 10 days over 1,600 years, which caused Easter and other religious feasts to fall out of alignment with the seasons. The Gregorian reform corrected this drift, refined the leap year rule, and standardized the calendar to better match the solar year.
However April Fools’ Day started it is clear that people have always loved a good joke in this country and throughout the world.
In Ukraine the Humorina festival has been celebrated each year in Odesa since 1973. The festival’s first slogan “Odesans of all countries – unite!” paraphrases the communists’ “ Workers of the world – unite!”. Since 2010 Odesa has hosted the International Festival of Clowns and Mimes alongside April Fools’ Day activities.
(Picture from a 2025 festival in Odessa !)
In France April Fool’s Day is known as April Fish. People stick a paper fish onto the back of as many people as they can, yelling “Poisson d’Avril”!
In Scotland April Fool’s Day took place over two days. One of them was known as Gowk’s Day - a Gowk has two meaning, a Cuckoo or a fool.A usual trick is to send someone on an errand to fetch thins like “Tartan Paint”
Mischief making is not confined to the month of April
Els Enfarinats is the Spanish equivalent of April Fools’ Day. It takes place annually in Ibi (Andalusia) on 28th December and is an annual food fight festival in which participants wearing military-style costumes attempt to take over the town armed with fireworks, flour and eggs.
Many thanks to my wife Sue for the research !!