April Fool's Day

Many of our old customs are “more honored in the breach than in the observance,” and this is particularly the case with the practice of making April fools, which is more evidently, than any other, the relic of a barbarous age. It is true that it is now confined to the lower class of society; and that probably, in a few years, it will so completely have passed away as to be remembered only as matter of history. It is curious, however, to trace its origin, in relation to which a few words may, perhaps, be found amusing.

“The first of April, some do say,
Is set apart for All-fool's day;
But why the people call it so,
Nor I nor they themselves do know.”

So says the poet.

In Scotland , an April fool is styled the Gowk , a name given there to the cuckoo, from the Saxon Geac (a cuckoo), derived from Geck , which means one easily imposed upon. Hunting the Gowk is sending him with a letter in which is written:--

“On the first day of April,*
Hunt the Gowk another mile.”

In France , the person sent on a foolish errand is called a Poisson d'Avril, probably because the fish appears a stupid animal.

The custom is a very ancient one, and is said to owe its origin to the Huli feasts among the Hindoos, in which the chief subject of diversion consisted in sending people on errands and expeditions that were to end in disappointment, and to raise a laugh at the expense of the person sent—the mirth being always in proportion to the trouble given.

Others, again, suppose the practice to have arisen from a custom, in the Middle Ages, of representing scenes from Sacred History without any feeling of impropriety, but which, in our enlightened times, is happily done away with. The scene in the Life of our Saviour, where he is sent from Pilate to Herod, and back again from Herod to Pilate, was represented in the Easter mysteries, which frequently fell in April, and is said to have given rise to the strange custom of sending on fruitless errands. The phrase of “sending a man from Pilate to Herod” is common in Germany , and signifies sending unnecessarily; and in some places both the first and the last day of April are selected for the observance; and he who is taken in by the bait is styled an Aprilen Tölpel , equivalent to our expression of April fool.

It is very possible that the passage in the life of our Saviour is the real origin of this foolish custom, as it is quite in accordance with the spirit of those days when what were called the Dramatic Mysteries were represented, and when the most holy and sacred subjects were treated with a degree of irreverence that would be perfectly horrible to our feelings, if we did not know that no real impiety was intended. I have mentioned the subject here, because I think that many persons who retain old customs with obstinacy, merely because they are old, would not do so if they had the least idea of the origin of the customs they defend so pertinaciously. Thus, the decking the houses with holly at Christmas is the remains of a pagan superstition; the holly having been dedicated to Saturn, as the mistletoe was to Friga, the Scandinavian Venus. The Yule log bears reference to the constant fire kept up by the priests of Baal; and the Maypole, with all its adjuncts, offers an imitation of the games formerly held in honor of the goddess Flora.

It is true that in towns these superstitions have now almost vanished, but in many country places they are still preserved. It is wonderful how long customs are retained by oral tradition, after all traces of their origin have passed away.

* The common pronunciation of the word April, in Scotland , makes it chime in with mile.

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