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Dear Austin & Michelle: Do you know that the first day of April is next week? The best part is that April 1st is April Fools’ Day! Why do they call it April Fools’ Day? Well, it has to do with the custom of playing tricks on people. A custom is something that people do over and over again -- like the way Santa Claus always delivers presents to people on Christmas Eve. Santa does it every year, so we can say that it is a custom. April Fools’ Day is like that. For a long, long time, people have been playing tricks on one another on the first day of April. Why do you think people do this? No one really knows why. Some people think that it has to do with the beginning of Spring. The word "April" originally had to do with things that open. What kinds of things open in the Spring? April is when we begin to see lots and lots of flowers. And, some people really like flowers, so they are happy and have parties to celebrate it. A long, long, long, long time ago, people began to play tricks on one another during the parties. Other people think that April Fools’ Day has to do with the beginning of the New Year. You know when New Years Day is, don’t you? It’s on January 1st, of course. It is the beginning of each new year. This year, we began the year 1999. Next year, we will begin the year 2000. Well, a long, long, long, long time ago, New Years Day was NOT on January 1st but on April 1st! Isn’t that weird? People a long time ago thought so too, so they changed it to January 1st. But, not everybody wanted to change the New Year. So, they continued to pretend that April 1st was New Year’s Day. Well, there was an argument.
You know how people have parties and stuff to celebrate the New Year? Well, what happened was that some people would have parties on January 1st and other people would have parties on April 1st. So, the people who wanted to change it to January 1st began to play tricks on the people who didn’t want to change it. And, they played their tricks on April 1st. WHEW! Do we really care WHY we play tricks on April 1st? It is fun to think about it. If you want to learn more about it, visit the April Fool Website -- that's where we found a lot of this stuff. I also found some of it in the Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia. It's pretty fun to read. So, this April 1st, you need to pick out someone to trick. On April Fools’ Day, we call the people that we trick an "April Fool." In France, they are called "April Fish." In Scotland, they are called a "cuckoo." Of course, it’s not nice to call people names. So, once you have played your trick, just shout "HAPPY APRIL Fools’ DAY!" And, remember, a joke isn’t funny if it hurts somebody’s feelings or scares somebody. Of course, you are a nice person, so we know that you will play a fun joke and not a mean one. We think of you all the time. And, we really miss you. We love you lots and lots.   |
