I was expecting the birth of my second child on the lst of April, but he fooled me and was born on April 3rd.  That is the only April Fool’s Day prank I remember and my son had nothing to do with it.  Do you recall some of the pranks you played on this day as a child?  The only one that comes to mind is saying something untrue and make it sound true.

Guess what?  That happens every day, not just once a year.  Shakespeare used the character of the fool in many of his plays.  His fools are usually clever peasants that use their wits to make those of higher social standing look foolish.  We think it’s funny when we can outsmart someone who should know better.

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be
a fool.”  As You Like It – Shakespeare

Practical jokes can be fun, but they should never be done to humiliate or belittle someone.  However, what we think is funny, may not be to someone else.  The Bible has plenty to say about fools as well.

^“Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.”  Proverbs 18:2

Even one of our presidents had something to say about fooling others.

“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Abraham Lincoln

The definition of “fool” includes a long list of synonyms such as, idiot, ass, halfwit, nitwit, nincompoop, blockhead, buffoon, dunce, ignoramus, imbecile and many more.

Apparently this whole April Fool’s Day began way back in the 1500’s when Pope Gregory changed the Julian calendar to the Gregorian Calendar.  Hhmmm, sounds a little narcissistic to me, but I digress. There was confusion  because the dates were changed and it took most common folk a long time to get used to change.

Kind of like today.  Change is difficult.  April 1 was originally the first day of the new year.  I guess I’d get confused too.  It isn’t really known when the source of the pranks occurred, but as time progresses, the pranks can be fun or they can humiliate.  As you decide how to trick someone today, keep in mind the fact that this isn’t really April first at all.  It’s New Year’s Day.