I have never liked April Fool’s Day. I mean, what’s the point?
As near as I can tell, pulling juvenile pranks is a crowning achievement on April 1st – for example, switching salt and sugar. When the victim of the gag spits out the tainted food, the prankster yells, “April Fool!”
Really? Someone who mistakes salt for sugar is a fool?
Another favorite trick on this dud of a day is to get someone to believe a lie. If the liar has enough credibility to persuade the target to fall for the lie, then the perpetrator of the lie yells “April Fool!” Well now, isn’t that hilarious?
If you ask me, the Fool is the one who thinks it’s funny to pull adolescent tricks or tell lies.
A Personal Experience
I was not amused one year when students set the classroom clock ahead five or ten minutes. Of course, I let them pack up their things early that day, not realizing it was too early. And when the bell didn’t ring to end the class when our clock said it should, the students yelled, “April Fool!”
Oh yeah, that was funny. NOT! And if you think those students climbed up on a chair, retrieved the clock and reset it to the correct time, you’re missing the whole point of April Fools’ Day.
Okay, to be honest, they may have offered to reset it. I don’t remember now. But there was no way I was going to trust them to reset it! That’s the ultimate result of April Fool antics: loss of credibility. And possibly even loss of respect.
Where Did It Come From?
Who dreamed up the idea of April Fools’ Day, anyway? I couldn’t find any definitive answer to that question. But here’s one possibility:
Perhaps, it was about a calendar change. Julius Caesar’s Julian calendar was off 11 minutes each year. Over time, the calendar was no longer in sync with the seasons. So, in 1582, Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian calendar, which placed the New Year at January 1. 1
On the old version, the New Year began at the time of the spring equinox, approximately April 1st. Folks who continued to celebrate the New Year according to the old calendar were branded “April Fools.” They became the victims of lame pranks and hoaxes. 1
Some Famous April Fools’ Day Hoaxes
Some people go all out in their quest to make others look like fools on April 1. For example:
Britain, 1957. The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) aired a story about Swiss farmers growing spaghetti. They showed a family harvesting long strands of the pasta from their “spaghetti trees.” When viewers called in, asking how to grow the trees, they were instructed to “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.” 2
Sweden, 1962. TV viewers were given some exciting news. If people would stretch nylon stockings over their screens, their black-and-white programming would be transformed into gorgeous color. I’m guessing hosiery sellers in Sweden enjoyed that bonanza until TV owners found that stockings only obscured the picture. 2
Scotland, 1972. Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, was real! Sadly, the poor creature had died. A picture of dead “Nessie” went viral – viral for 1972. But it turned out that it wasn’t really Nessie. It was a dead bull elephant seal that a zoo employee had put in the lake, hoping to fool co-workers. 2
United States 1992. National Public Radio announced that Richard Nixon, age 79, was running for President again. He had resigned from that office in disgrace nearly 18 years earlier (in 1974.) Comedian Rich Little, playing the part of Richard Nixon, stated, “I never did anything wrong, and I won’t do it again.” Listeners were outraged at the supposed former President’s chutzpah. 2
United States 1998. Burger King revealed its newest offering: the Left-Handed Whopper. By rotating condiments 180 degrees, the burger giant was able to provide a sandwich better suited to their left-handed customers. I hope the thousands of customers who ordered the new version of the Whopper got their money’s worth! 2
Who Are the Real Fools?
The Bible book of Psalms answers this question twice: “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God’.” (Psalms 14:1 and 53:1, KJV)
Okay then, let’s ask another question. Why do we believe in God? I guess the most obvious reason for believing in Him is that we’re here and our world is here. Without God, where did we come from?
A few centuries ago, scientists disproved the notion of spontaneous generation. Living things, they realized, had to come from other living things. Dead meat does not give rise to maggots. And dust is not the parent of fleas.
Okay, that’s logical. What about non-living things? Can they just materialize? Nope. Never heard of it happening that way.
In other words, using the principle of cause and effect, we are surrounded by effects: plants, animals, people, Earth, the planets, the stars. But if we have all these effects, there must be a cause. Or, a CAUSE.
We call the CAUSE, “God.”
Trying to Get Rid of God
Down through the ages, some fools have tried to explain away God. For example, there’s the Big Bang Theory, which leaves God out of the creation of the universe. According to this theory, a tiny bit of infinitely dense matter suddenly went “boom.” From that explosion, all matter – both past and present – came into existence. 3
Interesting. And where did that tiny dense ball of matter come from in the first place?
Then there’s the fairy tale of evolution, designed to prove that all living things sort of created themselves. I once read a book titled, From Goo to You by Way of the Zoo.4 That title pretty well sums up the evolution myth. I could rant and rave on this topic for a long time, but I’ll make it short. To believe that the delicately balanced feedback mechanisms of our endocrine system and the intricately complex interaction of cellular DNA with RNA arose by accident (aka mutation) demands more faith than I can conjure. (And that’s not even considering the meticulously designed nervous, cardiovascular, digestive, etc. systems that supposedly bungled their way into existence.)
So here’s the bottom line for my April Fools’ Day rant: Clowns who inflict lame pranks on others are only pitiful. But fools who don’t believe in God are tragic.
Repurposing the Day
If you have ever felt stupid or foolish because someone successfully pulled an April Fool joke on you, don’t feel too bad about it. You’re not the fool. You should be feeling sorry for the pitiful jokester who thought it was fun or funny to make you feel bad. They’re the moron; you’re not.
But if you or someone you know doesn’t believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that situation is way more serious than any foolish prank.
If you don’t believe in God, you can turn this nothing day into your second birthday – your “born again” day. My blog, “Highway to Heaven,” explains how you can become a member of God’s own family. You’ll never make a smarter decision.
And for those of us who do know the Lord, April 1, like every other day, is the perfect time to be God’s representatives and His laborers in the harvest here on Earth. Instead of making the day a time of foolishness, it can be a day of wisdom, grace, and love.
References:
1 Information about the origins of April Fools’ Day is from the article, “April Fools’ Day,” on history.com.
2 My list of hoaxes comes from history.com’s article, “9 Zany April Fools’ Day Hoaxes.”
3 This is my summary of information gleaned from the article, “Big Bang,” on the website Universe Today.
4 From Goo to You by Way of the Zoo, by Harold Hill, Mary Elizabeth Rogers, and Irene Burk Harrell
Thank you to AnnaliseArt on pixabay for the featured image.