This year, April Fools’ Day is on Saturday, the day after our paper publishes. Nevertheless, I figured I would basically rerun the same column today, with just a few changes. I hope our readers find it educational and entertaining.
Checking the Internet for details on the popular day, and wanting to find a reliable source, I settled on some intriguing specifics of the history of April Fools’ Day. Where else, but history.com? According to their website, the whole thing started nearly 500 years ago. See below for more extensive details provided by the website mentioned above.
Although the day, also called All Fools’ Day, has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, its exact origins remain a mystery. Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes. These included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as “poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.
Historians have also linked April Fools’ Day to ancient festivals such as Hilaria, which was celebrated in Rome at the end of March and involved people dressing up in disguises. There’s also speculation that April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather.
April Fools’ Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. In Scotland, the tradition became a two-day event, starting with “hunting the gowk,” in which people were sent on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for fool) and followed by Tailie Day, which involved pranks played on people’s derrieres, such as pinning fake tails or “kick me” signs on them.
A similar trick in our country is called a “Snipe Hunt.” According to thefreedictionary.com, a snipe hunt is an elaborate practical joke in which an unsuspecting person takes part in a bogus hunt for a snipe (which is usually described to the one being pranked an elusive bird or small animal). Those perpetrating the trick instruct the gullible soul being pranked to stay alone in the dark and to wait motionless until the snipe appears.
With that being said, the Signal Tribune staff thought we’d add to the silliness by creating some unusual elements on the front page of this issue. As a reward for finding them, we will give two tickets to local events to the first six readers who email us at newspaper@signaltribune.com or call us at (562) 595-7900 (please call after 9am) and correctly identify the six images not usually found on our weekly front page, (photos, stories and ads do not count). Tickets will include two passes to either America’s Family Pet Expo, Long Beach Playhouse, Disney on Ice, or Newport Beach Boat Show. Choices of prizes will be the participant’s choice- first come first served. Good luck.
