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A YARN ABOUT “ ALL FOOL’S DAY.”

At tbo Savage Olub's opening “Itororo” on Saturday evening last, the following clever and amusing address was delivered by Dr J. G. Findlay, and wo have pleasure, at tho request of tlio president of the club, in giving it tbo. wider circulation of our columns. Dr (Findlay spoke as follows: — I have been wondering whether some comical sense of its fitness has led this club to choose the Ist April for its natal ■day. For it was one of your own. responsible and authorised officers who suggested that I should make tho Ist April tho subject of my few remarks. Is it, then, a rash inference that tho collective wisdom of the committee and a glance at their names shows what that moans —has aptly chosen All bools Day for its opening meeting? Dot the superficial smile, sober reflection hue proves rny shrewd conjecture true. Are wo not told that tho traditional etymology of “April” is “omnia aperit”— '■it opens everything,” from a hud to a bachelor’s heart and a benedict’s pocket. Is it not, indeed, “par excellence” the opening month of tho year, since in the Old World, where it took its name, it is the budding, blooming, sprouting 'middle month of spring. It is tins season when all Nature goes, so to speak, upon tho hurst, and man,, tho latest child of Nature, follows his great AloIhcr in a hurst of folly. It’s tho boyhood, the youth of the year, communicating its spontaneous spirit to tho blood, so (hat scientists like Dr Collins aver that then even a turkey-cock is seen to strut, with more, elastic tread. But science, is of the earth, earthy, while poetry is of heaven, heavenly, and we should listen to the words of our illustrious poet— In the Spring !hc Modest Matron feeds as youthful as she's drest. In (lie Spring (he Balmy Baldhend pcrnclratcs his mouldy jest; In th" Spring a mad houso-clonning stirs (ho staid domestic dove, In tin! Spring an old man’s fancy lightly tarns to thoughts of love. Is more needed than tins to prove that, April is your only silly season, and ronseqiicntly that tho first of April is tlio fittest day lo start a did) whose aim is mostly mirth? I have appealed to science, I have appealed to verse. I 'now appeal to history. What is the origin of All Fools’ Day? Is it not intimately connected with .(lie merry frolies; of spring? It is obvious that tliS recognition and ■customs of this day are nearly universal. f nr to send unsuspecting people bootless errands on April first is practised in most of tlio countries of Europe. In France tlio unhappy victim is called "‘poi.sson d’Avril,” or “April Fish”; in •Scotland, a “Gowk”; and in England an “April Fool.” Do 1 address at this 'moment any' man horn with such a vigilant, suspicion of ids fellows that he has never been a gowk? I decline to believe it.

lint when did this practice begin? Some learned writers gravely tell ns that it began on the Ark when Noah tirst sent out the dove—which is, of course, an emblem of unsuspecting innocence—to find land. Others refer it to an incident in the- Now Testament, too sacred for light treatment. Others to the change in ’France in 15(14 of Now Year's Day from March 0.-. fl. tn January Ist—a change which left April destitute of everything Imt a. burlesque of its former festivities. I.; it or and nrofonnclcr speculation has suggested as its origin Hindoo Festival of Hnli (probably a Hindoo abbreviation for Bally-Hooley), celebrated on tho 81st day of March in much the same way as our April Ist. This points to tho hoary antiquity of tho practice, for these Indian festivals date back to tho beginning of the race, and wo are, therefore, free to fancy that on tho banks of tb© Ganges, forty or fifty thousand years ago, ono of the wives of paleolithic man on Hnli morning induced her lord of creation to hastily and unceremoniously climb the nearest tree by announcing the approaching tread of a megatherium—the lady having hor playfulness subsequently playfully patted out of her cerebral centre with a “Savage Club’’ for tbo eneourngemont of others. ■ Again, in Japan a domestic festival, called tho feast of tho dolls, is celebrated in tho same month. Then comes along tho ponderous pundit, .Brewer, who throws over it (lie glamour of a classic origin, and suggests that it is a relic of the Homan * f Coroalia,” held M *hp beginning of 'April. You are, of course, all familiar with tho story. Proserpina, a young, giddy, inexperienced thing, was sporting in tho Ely si an meadows in tho springtime, and Imd just filled her dainty lap with daffodils, when Pinto—who was constantly breaking our criminal law—carried her off#to the lower world. Her mother. “ Ceres,” poor goddess, heard the echo of her screams, and went in search of the voice, but it was no go. Pluto bad gone. Her search was a fool’s errand. It was “hunting the gowk”—it, was looking for the echo of a scream. Is it not wonderful to reflect flint the guileless deception which our boys play on. us.—whereby ray youngest got me out of bed this morning to attend an imaginary telephone message—bad its origin amid the pranks of tho Roman gods ?

From thcso half-dozen different explanations you can freely pick according to your fancy; but my view is that the playfulness of the day is bub the relic of a spring festival which expressed the season’s spirit of jollity and harmless folly. Hence you soo our cluVs wisdom in choosing (as they plainly thought! All Fools’ Day for its commencement. It was an exceedingly happy thought—but (and, believe mo, I speak now with much inward pain! this society itself lias boon made an April fool of. All Fools’ Day in New Zealand is nob I ho Ist April, hut the Ist October, for the latter is our middle month of spring, and April hero is, in field and feeling, our month of sober autumn. A moment’s reflection will show you that October is. indeed, our true All Fools’ month. Is it not at the beginning of Mint month that the wily trout, taking his "dolco far niento ” beneath the umbrageous hank, descries in safety above tho stream countless agitated rods with a fly at ono end and a fool at the other? Is not that the month when our public men, having (under the influence of spring) become too giddy for sober business, hold their festive mock Parliament, and go off home in laughter and special trains? Is not that tho mouth when the genuine spring chicken makes ready fools of us iiv its premature post-mortem development of a muscular physique? This, perhaps, touches on tragedy, or, at least on nightmare, and I apologise; but is that not tho month when spring shows hurst into full bloom m every draper's Shop, and, for reasons to which gallantry prevents particular allusion., you can never get past a milliner's window] wi thout leaving the-pavement

and breaking tho Third Commandment,?

Bub why multiply proofs? Is not a word sufficient to tho wise. All Fools’ Day in this colony is tho Ist of October and not the Ist of April, and this hut helps mo as one of your members to give tho club my warmest and most sympathetic greetings a.s an April Fool. And lot us nob he afraid of being fools, or of confessing it. Let the gentle Klia, speak: “Take my word for tins, and say a fool told it yon if you please, tliat ho who hath not a dram of folly in hi-s mixture hath pounds of much worse matter in his composition. ’ Show mo tho man who has never bean a fool, and 1 im'l show you one who has never been wise. Does not a touch of folly make the whole world kin, for tbo simple reason that tho groat brotherhood o F fools is co-oxten-sivo with humanity itself? Even tho youngest of us cannot; bo always serious, and Horace, therefore, counsels us to minglo a in tie folly with our wisdom. While, then, tho merriment of our evenings will never broaden down lo brainless pantomime, we expect to find here Wisdom ready to laugh, and Science prepared to cut a caper.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19050408.2.27

Bibliographic details

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5558, 8 April 1905, Page 7

Word Count
1,401

A YARN ABOUT “ ALL FOOL’S DAY.” New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5558, 8 April 1905, Page 7

A YARN ABOUT “ ALL FOOL’S DAY.” New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5558, 8 April 1905, Page 7