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From: dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd)
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: StarDate:
Message-ID: <23@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Apr-85 02:00:23 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.23
Posted: Mon Apr  1 02:00:23 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Apr-85 02:22:10 EST
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 40

April Fool's Day may have come about in celebration of the vernal
equinox.  We'll talk more about it -- after this.

April l  Fooling the Fish Day

Would you believe us if we said that the moon will really is made of
green cheese?!

Of course not -- because today is April Fools Day.  No one is really
sure how April Fools Day got started.  There've been many different
explanations -- but some may be as fanciful as April Fools jokes
themselves!

Still, in countries as far apart as France and India, festivals of
merriment and foolishness have arisen -- possibly in connection with
the vernal equinox.  In our country, the tradition of April Fools Day
probably stems from England, Scotland and France -- where the most
popular form of April fooling was to send someone on a "fool's errand,"
for example to buy some pigeon's milk or a stick with one end.
Scholars have noticed the similarity of this custom to one that used to
be popular in India.  There, people celebrated an ancient fertility
rite at the equinox, or beginning of spring.  On the last day of the
celebration, March 31, people in India would also be sent on fool's
errands.  The similarity of April fooling in the east and west makes
some scholars believe that the custom has a very ancient origin -- one
tied to the beginning of spring.

Whatever its origin, the aim of April fooling has always been to play a
joke on an unsuspecting person who hasn't noticed what day it is.  What
you might not know is that in some places, April fooling has to be
carried out before noon.  Otherwise, it's traditional to call the
person playing the joke an "April fool" for having tried his tricks too
late.

Script mostly by Diana Hadley.

(joke by Joel Block)


(c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin