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April Fool..........Fool........the history

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IChing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 03:10 AM
Original message
April Fool..........Fool........the history
George Bush and his govt. is the best thing that every happened to this nation.

april fools day:

New Year's Day Moves
Ancient cultures, including those as varied as the Romans and the Hindus, celebrated New Year's Day on or around April 1. It closely follows the vernal equinox (March 20th or March 21st.)

In medieval times, much of Europe celebrated March 25, the Feast of Annunciation, as the beginning of the new year.
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered a new calendar (the Gregorian Calendar) to replace the old Julian Calendar.

The new calendar called for New Year's Day to be celebrated Jan. 1. That year, France adopted the reformed calendar and shifted New Year's day to Jan. 1.

According to a popular explanation, many people either refused to accept the new date, or did not learn about it, and continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April 1. Other people began to make fun of these traditionalists, sending them on "fool's errands" or trying to trick them into believing something false. Eventually, the practice spread throughout Europe.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aprilfools1.html
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IChing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Apr-01-06 03:15 AM
Response to Original message
1. More history
Another explanation of the origins of April Fools' Day was provided by Joseph Boskin,
a professor of history at Boston University.


He explained that the practice began during the reign of Constantine,
when a group of court jesters and fools told the Roman emperor that they could do a better job of running the empire.

Constantine, amused, allowed a jester named Kugel to be king for one day. Kugel passed an edict calling for absurdity on that day, and the custom became an annual event.


"In a way," explained Prof. Boskin, "it was a very serious day. In those times fools were really wise men. It was the role of jesters to put things in perspective with humor."


This explanation was brought to the public's attention in an Associated Press article printed by many newspapers in 1983. There was only one catch: Boskin made the whole thing up. It took a couple of weeks for the AP to realize that they'd been victims of an April Fools' joke themselves.
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