April Fool's Day, like so many other holidays, has it's origins in pagan traditions. Before Charles IX of France adopted the Georgian calender and made January 1 New Year's Day, most people celebrated the beginning of the year on April 1.

This came from the age old tradition that held that the spring equinox was the beginning of the new year. And because the spring equinox almost always happens during Pieces (the sign of the fish), the French used to try placing dead fish on one another. School children nowadays use paper cutouts and try to attach to unsuspecting friends. In many European counties, candy stores make special fish-shaped confections for the day.

In England and Scotland came the practice of playing practical jokes on one another. No one is sure how or why this practice developed, but Chaucer mentions it in his "Nun's Priest's Tale".

One year, my mother got a local radio station, who was noted for their practical jokes, to call my cousin at work. He owned a glass shop and replaced windshields as well, as well as other types of windows.

The caller posed as a minister who needed a windshield replaced; only the windshield was a leaded stained-glass window!

When I was in college, I worked in a drug store. One of my responsibilities was to manually change the date everynight on each of the cash registers. I am not sure if anyone ever noticed that their register tape said March 32! LOL

Come on, fess up! What are your favorite April Fool jokes?

Our local Zoo has a dreadful time on 1 April with people phoning in to speak to Mr 'G. Raff' and the like.

Mary