I actually got a worried piece of email from yesterday's blog about us shutting down the site, so let me reassure everyone that Wayfarer's Moon is not going anywhere. That was just an April Fool's joke.
Seriously.
However, out of curiousity, I looked up 'April Fools' Day' on Wikipedia and learned that nobody seems to know how it got started. It's just one of those weird little things that probably made complete sense when it began, but is now just a tradition.
Sort of like Larking Day, when you bury a fish (preferably freshwater) in your yard, spread playing cards atop it and then throw lard at the cards while firing guns into the air. Y'know, Larking Day.
Note: Larking Day is completely made up.
However, on a serious note, Leigh is busy getting the comic ready for our print order and has not had time to get a page done this week, though there should be one up next week.
Note: Larking Day would totally rock.
Cheers,
-Jason
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
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April fools began in France in the 15th century. The King had declared that the new year began on April 1 instead of January 1. When the king was killed, the new King kept everything the same. When that King died, the new King declared that they were joining the rest of the world, and moving January 1 to the new year. Some people refused to change, and continued celebrating on April 1. The King declared that they were "fools" to hang onto tradition that fully... and they became known as the "fools of April."
I wouldn't know this, except that my history professor explained it before beginning class.
Unless he was pulling a very teachery april fools day trick on you guys.
I usualy don't post on these kinds of fora, but today I couldn't resist.
What I've heard is that the origin of April fools was during the eighty year war between Spain and the Netherlands. In 1572 (probably on April 1st) Den Briel was recaptured from the Spanish general Alva by the watergeuzen (basicly a group of rebels who nowadays would probably be seen as terrorists). 'Bril' (which sounds almost the same as Briel) is the dutch word for glasses. After Alva had lost Den Briel people started making jokes about Alva losing his glasses.
I don't know whether this is true or not, but this is what I've heard.
I looked it up and there's no real consensus on how April Fools' Day came about. Apparently, though, at one time in France there was a tradition about hitting people with fish. I'm not kidding.
Actually, the best origin would be if it started as a joke. "Hey, let's be weird on April 1st and confuse the hell out of our descendents!"
To the best of my knowledge April's Fool began with the reworking of the Gregorian calendar by Augustus Caesar. When he decided to add the extra months of July (for Julius) and August they moved when they celebrated the beginning of the year from the start of spring. The new start was announced and a bunch of folks decided the Caesar was an idiot and they were not changing for him so they kept it up on April 1st. Hence they were April fools for refusing to keep up with modern times.
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