Course Content
One of the lesser celebrations in the western nations is April Fools' Day. Where did it come from?
The history of April Fools' Day has many different stories, but the most accepted involves the Gregorian calendar that most nations use now.
Prior to 1582 the Julian calendar was used, but it had a major flaw. The flaw was the length of the calculated solar year along with the way leap years were calculated. Over the centuries the Julian calendar began to push fixed date holidays (like Easter) away from their seasons. The Gregorian calendar shortened the solar year by 10 minutes and 48 seconds per year (a .002% difference) and took away three leap years every 400 years. These two corrections help to keep solar years aligned with a seasonal, lunar calendar.
Fish in April?
Before most nations adopted the Gregorian calendar, they celebrated New Year’s Day around the spring equinox. However the Gregorian calendar under King Charles IX of France moved this date back to January 1st. As the story goes, starting the week prior the French celebrated New Year’s Day by giving gifts and hosting and attending dinner parties. Many Frenchmen resisted the change of New Year’s from March 25th to January 1st (or simply forgot about the change) and continued to exchange gifts and party on what was now April 1st.
Jokers would ridicule those individuals holding to the “old” date by sending foolish gifts, invitations to nonexistent parties, or tricking them in general. At this time of the year the sun was moving out of the zodiac sign of Pisces (the fish), and so the French called these diehards of the old celebration “Poisson d’Avril (April Fish). Over the subsequent decades and centuries the New Year’s celebration connection was lost, and April 1st became a celebration in its own right and was accepted in other western nations.
Connection to New Year’s Day celebrations
April Fools' Day is anchored in history to a New Year’s Day celebration—which was infused with pagan traditions and symbolism. For instance, loud noises were originally made to scare away the evil spirits. The month of January was so named for the two-headed, Roman god Janus who supposedly looked backwards into the old year and forwards into the new. Additionally, the use of a baby to symbolize a new year came from Greek usage as a fertility symbol of rebirth.
Modern celebrations of New Year’s Day have all too often, simply become an excuse for drunken revelry. It should be obvious why a Christian should not get caught up in New Year’s or April Fools' celebrations!
Tricks and deceit
Being able to enjoy life and lighthearted moments are gifts from God. All too often, April Fools' becomes an exercise in using cutting humor or having a desire to publically embarrass someone. God’s desire is for us to encourage, edify and love one another – not to hurt with words or to deliberately deceive someone and think it funny. Engaging in an April Fools' celebration has nothing to do with godly values.
God does show us better days to keep and worship Him in truth. Why not observe the Holy Days God established to show us His plan of salvation for mankind? Then the celebrations we do before God will be based on His Word and not on ancient paganism. For more information on God’s Holy Days please read Holidays or Holy Days: Does It Matter Which Days We Observe?
Dan currently pastors 3 congregations in Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Wisconsin Dells). He has been associated with God’s church since he was a young boy.
Dan has an Associate degree in Commercial Art with almost 25 years in the publishing/advertising field. He also has a Bachelor of Arts degree (in Theology) from Ambassador College (graduating in 1986), was ordained an elder in 1997 and then was hired full time in 2004 as a minister in United Church of God.
Dan currently lives just north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his wife Roxanne.
