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Health & Fitness

The 'Borrowed Days' of April

A poem...begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. Robert Frost

April is a busy month. 

It is National Poetry Month, Young Poet’s Week (3rd week). April’s flower is the Sweet Pea, Birthstone is Diamond, Lilacs bloom in MN; Easter/Passover’s Festival of Freedom & Buddha’s birthday (in Japan) are observed in April.

The first three days of April are called the "Borrowed Days" and are traditionally associated with bad weather. This derives from an old Gaelic legend where a mythical cow boasted about March being unable to kill her.

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The result was that March borrowed three days of terrible weather from April to try and finish the cow off.

“This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever."

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--Sigmund Freud (about the Irish)

Another Irish Legend continues… The Jackdaw (blackbird), the Stonechat (sorta like a Robin), and the old brown cow mocked March after his days were done. “Well, this just won’t do!” so says March. And to punish such insolence, he begged of April nine of his days: three to fleece the Jackdaw, three to sleet upon the Stonechat, and three to wind the ol‘ brown cow. So, in parts of Ireland the tradition is pushed to 9 days to get the above done.

If it thunders on All Fools' day
it brings good crops of corn and hay.

Those bloody Norse Tricksters

The tradition behind April Fool's Day is uncertain. Though sometimes linked to a tradition of releasing insane people for one day a year for the amusement of "normal" folk, it is also considered sacred to Loki, the Norse trickster god, and it is acceptable to play tricks on people till noon.  The day may even have evolved from the festival of Cerelia. An ancient Roman feast, it celebrated the story of Proserpina. Due to the hopelessness of Ceres' quest to find her daughter, it has been called a "fool's errand."

Of course the French would have to be positively gagging for it:

Some believe the celebration of April Fool's Day began many years ago in France. It may even relate back to the ancient festivals held on the vernal Equinox, March 21st. This was the beginning of the new year according to the pre-Gregorian calendar. In France when the Gregorian calendar was changed by Charles IX in 1564, the beginning of the new year was changed and celebrated on January 1st. Those people who still celebrated the day on the first of April were then known as April Fools.

Prior to the change of the date it was customary to give gifts on the first day of the year. When the date was changed, people began sending mock gifts to other people on April, making them April fools.

The Scots irritatingly join in:

 In Scotland, the custom was known as "hunting the gawk," (the cuckoo, a term of contempt), and April-fools were "April-gawks."

"The only way the French are going in is if we tell them we found truffles in Iraq."

--Dennis Miller

In France, a person who resisted in changing the date of the new year was victimized by pranksters who played practical jokes on him. This person became a poisson d'avril, an April Fish.

The French traditionally celebrated by placing dead fish on the backs of friends, although today, real fish have been replaced with sticky, fish-shaped paper cut-outs that children try to sneak onto the back of their friends' shirts.

Candy shops and bakeries also offer fish-shaped sweets for the holiday. Some believe the origin lies in the weather of the vernal equinox which seems to fool all of mankind. In many countries however, April Fools' Day is not celebrated on the first of April.

Just to be Stubborn:

In Mexico, Fools' Day falls on the 28th of December, and in ancient Rome, the day was celebrated on the 25th of March. They observe the day on the 31st of March in India.

The Symbol of New Life:

The Christian holiday of Easter falls on the first Full Moon Sunday, following the spring equinox. Though one of the most important Christian holidays, it was drawn together from many pagan traditions, and its name came from the goddess of Spring, Eostre. The Easter Bunny hints of fertility and the hare was an emblem of Eostre.   Eggs, a major part of the celebration, also have their origin as fertility symbols / new life.

Have your cake and eat it:

So, within the Christian traditions, we have found our two major celebrations on not only agrarian new beginnings but also on increased day light new beginnings. And, as is our wont, we turn a poor baby born in destitution… into spending per person, on average, $700 for Xmas gifts (down from over $900 just 4 years back when housing bubble times were free and easy)  AND a selfless servant sacrificing His life… into witto bunnies and Easto Egg hunts. I suppose the Irish are just as much to blame.

When someone in the village dies, we all plan a party!

Maybe Horace was thinking like an Epicurean when he decried, “seize the day.”

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