April Fools…

April is fooling with me today. Mother Nature has dropped a cold white trick on me and my poor spring flowers. I only hope they can thaw out and bounce back for me to enjoy them once again once the sun warms the earth back up.

Early spring does have a way of teasing me and this year that has certainly been the case. I was curious about the origin of April Fools day wondering if it originated as a weather related phenomena and did a little research on line. To my surprise it was not born from my April weather experience at all, but Mother Nature certainly does know how to play her pranks and well beyond April 1st too!

It’s not exactly clear in history what inspired April Fools’ Day. According to News Discovery.Com, the most common theory about the earliest April Fools’ celebrations is that” in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull decreeing a new standard calendar for Christian Europe that later became the standard internationally in the 21st century”.

According to the article, “prior to the 15th century, Europe’s nations and city states operated using the Julian calendar. The Gregorian calendar moved the date of the New Year from April 1 to January 1, among other changes. Catholic monarchies were naturally its earliest adopters, though Protestant nations later followed suit.

“Given the nature of the reform, both in terms of communicating such a fundamental change to a large population and dealing with critics of the new calendar, some Europeans continued to celebrate the new year between March 25 and April 1. April fools were those who still celebrated the holiday in the spring, and were the subject of pranks and ridicule by those who observed the New Year months ago.”*

So this fun tradition originated from bullying behavior!

I find it interesting to learn where sayings and traditions originate and notice how things morph over time. I certainly hope in today’s experiences of April Fools’ Day pranks that we don’t hurt the very people we are playing with!

There are life long impacts from being bullied when we are young. Being picked on at any age does indeed hurt and the scars can go very deep.

While I am all too eager to get out in my yard, I will have to wait a few more days and be patient as Mother Earth has decreed. The good news is there are much warmer temperatures in the forecast for next weekend…we will see what Mother Natures has in store for me then!

What experiences have you had with bullying in your lifetime?