2008 Woodie Awards
April Fools foolishly fun
Jesimin Berman
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Now that Spring Break and most midterms are finally over, students can once again focus on whatever their hearts desire. Whether their priorities include their schoolwork, television shows, clubs or something along those lines, we should not forget the beauty of April Fools' Day.
Considering the big fuss that people make over Valentine's Day and Saint Patrick's Day, April Fools' Day fails to get the attention it truly deserves. This day calls upon all class clowns, pranksters and laypeople to relax and have a little fun at the expense of someone else.
Instead of low-ball hoaxes such as fake pregnancies, whoopee cushions, snakes in a can or the like, it is a holiday that demands creativity. It's about figuring out what will most shock or scare your friends. Does your friend obsess about designer clothing? Maybe replacing parts of her wardrobe with Goodwill items will humble her and be fondly remembered for years to come. Personally, I will always remember last year's April Fools' when, after a long night of homework and running around between activities, I returned to my dorm room, flipped on the light, and was shocked to find my dorm room covered with five hundred neon yellow and pink peeps (those Easter bunny-shaped, colored marshmallows) looking at me from every possible inch of free space. Each peep was arranged OCD-style across my floor, desk, staring at me from my shoes, throughout my closet and in my flower vases. After screaming at the surprise, the shock subsided and I realized that it would make for an amazing facebook picture and that it had set the bar quite high for revenge. My friends used my obsessive clean-freak behavior against me and knew that having to sweep up peep sugar-dust from the floor would destroy me (of course they came and helped, feeling quite bad about the prank). But the point remains that if Valentine's Day merits celebration, so should April Fools' Day.
Maybe the lack of recognition for April Fools' Day is due to its misty origins. After some research, you will discover that there are many possible explanations to the beginnings of the "holiday," but don't be put off by this. The most credible explanation links the rise of April Fools' Day to the change in date of New Year's from April 1 to January 1 in 1582 by Pope Gregory when the Julian calendar was formally replaced by his updated Gregorian calendar. The story goes that it took quite a bit of time for people in France to hear about the changed date of New Years. Nonetheless, there were a significant number of French people who heard about the date change and refused to accept it, so this group of people continued to celebrate New Years on April 1 and were hence forth referred to as April Fools. But where do the pranks and hoaxes play into this story? Well, these "April Fools" were taunted and pranked with practical jokes by those in the community who had accepted the date change.
So what does the background story of April Fools' Day prove? Hopefully, you will take something away from this article other than that the French have never really been liked in history. If this article did its job, you will know one explanation for April Fools' Day and maybe even pull a prank or two on the only day that people might understand your motive. At the same time, committing some type of crime in honor of April Fools' won't hold up in court, but small-scale pranks should be fair game.
• Jesimin Berman does not exist. You have just been pranked.
Considering the big fuss that people make over Valentine's Day and Saint Patrick's Day, April Fools' Day fails to get the attention it truly deserves. This day calls upon all class clowns, pranksters and laypeople to relax and have a little fun at the expense of someone else.
Instead of low-ball hoaxes such as fake pregnancies, whoopee cushions, snakes in a can or the like, it is a holiday that demands creativity. It's about figuring out what will most shock or scare your friends. Does your friend obsess about designer clothing? Maybe replacing parts of her wardrobe with Goodwill items will humble her and be fondly remembered for years to come. Personally, I will always remember last year's April Fools' when, after a long night of homework and running around between activities, I returned to my dorm room, flipped on the light, and was shocked to find my dorm room covered with five hundred neon yellow and pink peeps (those Easter bunny-shaped, colored marshmallows) looking at me from every possible inch of free space. Each peep was arranged OCD-style across my floor, desk, staring at me from my shoes, throughout my closet and in my flower vases. After screaming at the surprise, the shock subsided and I realized that it would make for an amazing facebook picture and that it had set the bar quite high for revenge. My friends used my obsessive clean-freak behavior against me and knew that having to sweep up peep sugar-dust from the floor would destroy me (of course they came and helped, feeling quite bad about the prank). But the point remains that if Valentine's Day merits celebration, so should April Fools' Day.
Maybe the lack of recognition for April Fools' Day is due to its misty origins. After some research, you will discover that there are many possible explanations to the beginnings of the "holiday," but don't be put off by this. The most credible explanation links the rise of April Fools' Day to the change in date of New Year's from April 1 to January 1 in 1582 by Pope Gregory when the Julian calendar was formally replaced by his updated Gregorian calendar. The story goes that it took quite a bit of time for people in France to hear about the changed date of New Years. Nonetheless, there were a significant number of French people who heard about the date change and refused to accept it, so this group of people continued to celebrate New Years on April 1 and were hence forth referred to as April Fools. But where do the pranks and hoaxes play into this story? Well, these "April Fools" were taunted and pranked with practical jokes by those in the community who had accepted the date change.
So what does the background story of April Fools' Day prove? Hopefully, you will take something away from this article other than that the French have never really been liked in history. If this article did its job, you will know one explanation for April Fools' Day and maybe even pull a prank or two on the only day that people might understand your motive. At the same time, committing some type of crime in honor of April Fools' won't hold up in court, but small-scale pranks should be fair game.
• Jesimin Berman does not exist. You have just been pranked.
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