APRIL FOOL’S DAY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 158, 1 April 1937, Page 13

APRIL FOOL’S DAY

Origin of Custom Unknown MANY SPECULATIONS April Fool’s Day, or All Fool’s Day, is a day set aside throughout Christendom for fooling, and to play more or less amiably tricks upon one’s neighbour. There have been many disputes about the origin of the custom, but nothing positive to-day is known except in theory. One speculator, however, goes back to Noah and the Ark, when Noah sent out a dove before the waters, had receded. That day corresponded" to our April 1, and to perpetuate the memory of the happening, it was thought proper punishment for whoever forgot so remarkable a circumstance, to send them on some sleeveless errand similar to that ineffectual message upon which the bird was sent by the patriarch.

Another says the custom refers to the time of Christ, and argues that as the Passion of our Saviour took place at about this time of the year, and as the Jews sent Him back and forward to mock and torment Him, this rather impious custom arose by which people to-day send a person from one place to another on sometimes heartless searches.

The origin of the custom is thought by most authorities to have had it-r birth in France, which was the fir.- 1 country to change New Year’s Day from March 25 to January 1. With the adoption of the reformed calendar in 1564, only pretended gifts and visits were made on April 1, a reminder to those with a bad memory.

India, however, is said to have even a stronger claim for the origin of the custom. The feast of Hali has been held from time immemorial and ends on March 31. On the following day the chief amusement is befooling people by sending them on fruitless errands. That a whole day could be spent fooling appealed to other countries, and gradually the custom became observed. it has died out a great deal since the Great War, and to-day in New Zealand has lost most of its significance. In Great Britain the custom seems not to have had any existence until the eighteenth century. Addison made one of the earliest references to it in his “Spectator,” and in 1713, in his “Journal to Stella,” Swift related how two friends and himself spent an amusing evening “contriving a lie for the morrow.” Their invention was that a man, previously hanged, had come to life and was the guest of an innkeeper! Other jokes at that time were to send people looking for a history of Eve’s grandmof‘r, to buy a peck of lien’s teeth or a pint of pigeon’s milk. In 1860 some gay spirits in London perpetrated a successful and notorious joke on a wholesale plan. Many well-known persons received a card which read, “Tower of London—Admit bearer and friend to view the annual washing of the White Lions on Sunday, April 1. Admittance only at the White Gate.” A procession of cabs rattled round the Tower all day in vain attempts to discover this 'entrance. In more modern times, rubber confectionery, exploding cigarettes, imitation Howers which eject a stream of water into the admirer's eye, are some of the commoner forms of making people feel and look ridiculous. Gatelifting at night appeals to many in country towns, but it is not at all appreciated by householders.