APRIL FOOL !!!!!
April, fourth month of the Gregorian calendar year. It has 30 days. The Romans gave this month the name Aprilis, derived from aperire ("to open"), probably because it is the season when buds begin to open; it was called Eostre (Easter) month by the Anglo-Saxons. Playing tricks on the first day of April is a custom among European peoples. In France the victim of such practical jokes is called an April fish; in Scotland, a gowk or cuckoo; and in English-speaking countries, an April fool.



"April," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Whew! For a split second I thought Ed McMahon had joined the Board!
wow

Bill, c'mere a minute, will ya...
I have something for you.

Bill,

You're an angel! I WON!!!

That's the last yawl'll hear from this IP!!

Money can't buy you happiness, they say. It may be true, but I prefer practical experimentation to theory, personally ...

Money cannot buy happiness ..... but it sure can make misery bearable.
Or so I've been told.
wow

Remember Liberace's line about crying all the way to the bank?

Thanks, Dr Bill! I'll be looking for the check in the mail.

To add to your information about April Fool's Day, April used to be the first day of the new year, until the calendar was changed (under I forget whose direction), and January 1st became the new year. Some people forgot the change, and celebrated the new year on April 1st. They were derided as April fools, and voila!

For my part, I sent letters dated April 1 to five other members of the Michigan bar (whom I don't know) who have surnames very similar to mine. Under a dummied letterhead, I informed them that they spell their names wrong.

Who else wants to fess up?

Maybe this site is pulling a belated April Fool--although this is the only thread with posts that are new to me, there were two listed above it. The second one's last post was August 9th.

Edit:
This post took this thread to the top of my list, but I just went to W & F, and there were 6 threads above the only one with a new post. What the heck??

Miscellany's full of threads that indicate the latest post was April 1 or 2, yet they date back 6 months or more.

New Years Day
I'm not sure about other countries, but I believe that in the British Empire, including at the time the American colonies, new years day switched from April to January 1 when they switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in (I think) 1757. This is why you frequently see dates in the earlier part of the 18th century written as, e.g., Feb. 11, 1737/38 indicating that it was still 1737 in the Julian calendar but 1738 in the Gregorian.

Is Spain the only European country where we celebrate April Fools' Day in December? Obviously we don't call it like that, although the trick-playing is the same as everywhere else. The day is 28th December, when King Herod ordered all babies (the "Holy Innocents") to be killed so that the baby Jesus would die as well. How such a dreadful event came to be celebrated by playing tricks on people is beyond me. What is true is that when you trick someone on Dec. 28th and then you want to give the game away, you simply point at them, laugh maniacally and yell "Inocente!", as in "Ha, ha, ha! You poor naive soul!"

[shrugging and wondering e]