One of the most interesting aspects of Easter is its peripatetic nature. It wanders around the calendar awaiting the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. By definition it’s always in spring, but it can range widely as to when it actually falls. This year it meets up with another unusual holiday—one with very uncertain origins. April Fools’ Day is poorly documented and understudied. This is one of the reasons I find holidays so fascinating. Scholars seldom take them seriously and, well, April fools. Who’s going to look into that? When working on The Wicker Man (which is about holiday horror), I found there was little to find about April Fools’ Day. There’s no agreement as to why it’s called that or how it started. I have a pet theory, but no evidence to back it up.
Image credit: Heinrich Vogtherr the Younger, public domain via Wikimedia Commons
We tend to think of April Fools’ as a day for practical jokes. Indeed, the horror movie based on it is a big, long practical joke. I wonder, however, if it goes back to my other old avocation, the weather. The weather led me to write a book as well, of course. For those in the northern hemisphere—particularly up in the more temperate parts of that hemisphere—April can indeed fool. Around here it’s been decidedly cool for spring after a real warm spell a couple weeks back. One year while living in Wisconsin we took a family trip for my wife’s mid-April birthday only to end up playing mini-golf in the snow. April fools, you see. We’re not out of the woods yet, regarding winter. This understanding of seasons makes me think April Fools’ Day evolved from a statement about the weather.
Irish Celts believed spring began at Imbolc, at the start of February. In that viewpoint, summer begins on May Day (Beltane), just a month away. Now that Easter has fallen on the last day of March we’re left with an April bereft of official holidays, other than April Fools’ Day. In fact, work-wise it’s a barren period from Presidents Day, in mid February, through Memorial Day at the end of May. Just as the weather’s warming up to make the occasional long walk through the woods a magical journey of discovery, we’re confined to our offices—virtual or physical—gazing longingly out the window as nature invites us out to play. Well, April fools, does it not?
