Just how did April Fool’s Day begin?

Saturday is April 1, which is known popularly as April Fools’ Day or All Fools’ Day, consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. How did this custom originate to designate April 1 as April Fools’ Day?

Although its origins are unknown, there are lots of theories surrounding it. Here are just a few of the possibilities for its origins: ed to take special treats to work to share with his fellow workers on his birthday – a box of what looked like homemade chocolate-covered nuts. But when they bit into the yummylooking delicacy, it was chocolate-covered onions! So, beware!

A disputed association between April 1 and foolishness is in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, written in 1392. In the “Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” a vain cock Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox on “Since March began thirty days and two,” i.e., 32 days since March began, which is April 1. Modern scholars believe this actually was a copying error and Chaucer really wrote “Syn March was gon,” which meant 32 days after March, or May 2, the anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, which took place in 1381.

In 1508, French poet Eloy d’Amerval referred to a poisson d’avril (April fool, literally “April’s fish”), possibly the first reference to the celebration in France.

Some historians suggest that April Fools’ originated because, in the Middle Ages, New Year’s Day was celebrated on March 25 in most European towns with a holiday that, in some areas of France, ended on April 1, and those who celebrated New Year’s Eve on January 1 made fun of those who celebrated on other dates by the invention of April Fools’ Day.

In 1686, John Aubrey referred to the celebration as “Fooles holy day,” the first British reference. On April 1, 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to “see the Lions washed.” It was billed as an annual event, but no such event ever took place.

Although no biblical scholar or historian is known to have mentioned a relationship, some have expressed the belief that the origins of April Fools’ Day may go back to the Genesis flood narrative. In a 1908 edition of the Harper’s Weekly, cartoonist Bertha R. McDonald wrote that Noah made the mistake of “sending the dove out of the ark before the water had abated on the first day of April, and to perpetuate the memory of this deliverance it was thought proper, whoever forgot so remarkable a circumstance, to punish them by sending them upon some sleeveless errand similar to that ineffectual message upon which the bird was sent by the patriarch.”

No matter how this tradition of playing pranks started, what are some of your memorable April Fools’ Days? For my husband’s father, it was a special day since it was his birthday. One time in the 1960s, my father-in-law decid-

Lagro Community Church welcomes you to church.

Sunday School is every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and worship service is at 10 a.m. Robert Karst is the speaker for April 2.

St. Patrick’s Church of Lagro invites you to Mass on Sunday, April 2, at 11 a.m. Services will resume the first Sunday of every month from April through December.

Dora Christian Church, 2325 S. Salamonie Dam Road, welcomes you to worship service Sunday at 8:15 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. Sunday School is at 9:30 a.m. Prayer and Bible study continues on Wednesday nights at 6:30 p.m. with “Man’s Journey Into Timelessness.”

Lagro United Methodist Church invites you to its Sunday morning services at 9:00 a.m., and Sunday school for all ages at 10:00 a.m. Youth group activities for students in the 4th through 12th grades are also offered. Those activities and times vary each month depending on the service project.

For more information on youth programs, parents can email the church at LagroUMC@gmail. com.

Congratulations to the 7th and 8th Grade Choirs of Northfield Junior High for each of their GOLD ratings at the ISSMA choir contest at Manchester HS on Saturday, March 18! Each choir sang on their own to receive the Gold rating in their divi- sion.

Two weeks ago, the incoming kindergarteners of Metro North officially signed on to be a part of the Norse Family at

Kindergarten Round-Up! A group of fantastic Northfield High School students gave them a warm welcome and invited them to sign a Cont. on Pg. 24.