For April Fool’s Day, I vaguely considered the notion of posting something about how I was retiring from the occult investigation game. Instead, I ended up putting together a totally revised version of my site under a completely new system. Historically, this second option is rather more in line with the historical tradition of April Fool’s Day (also called All Fool’s Day).

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered the creation and implementation of a new calendar system - the so-called Gregorian Calendar. It replaced the older Julian calendar, which had been implemented under the orders of Julius Caesar in 45 BC. I’m not going to go into all the technical details between the two, but suffice it to say, things got shifted around when the modern Gregorian calendar was adopted.

Originally, the New Year was celebrated during an eight day festival from March 25, culminating on April 1st. March 25, aside from being close to the Vernal Equinox, was a full nine months before December 25 (Christmas) and is the Catholic Feast of the Annunciation, wherein the archangel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary and announces that she will, through the Holy Spirit conceive and bear the child Jesus. (Also worth looking into is the term Theotokos - “God-bearer” which is connected to Mary and the Annunciation) In Pre-Christian Rome, the first of April was also the Veneralia, a holiday dedicated to the goddess of love, Venus. Our word “venerate” comes from the same root word. Also, while we’re on the topic, check out this list of Catholic saints whose feast day is celebrated on April 1st.

Though it was implemented in 1582, very few countries at the time adopted the new Gregorian calendrical system. The reason being that it was a Catholic invention, and by that time, many European countries were now Protestants, outside the aegis of the Church of Rome. I’m guessing the non-Catholic countries viewed it as something of an insidious attempt on the part of Rome to insinuate itself back into the minds and societies of people, through a sort of “back-door” entrance. Originally, only Italy, Poland, Spain and Portugal adopted the system. The British Empire did not get on board until 1752. Russia did not adopt it until after the October Revolution in the beginning of 1918. Greece was the last country to formally accept the Gregorian calendar in 1923. Orthodox and Eastern churches, however, did not adopt the system. Many continue to use their own old calendars, while others engaged in debates which resulted in two camps, the New and Old Calendarists.

According to common lore, April Fool’s Day then became noteworthy as a day of reckoning and who you aligned yourself with: the Roman Catholic Church, or the new Protestant churches throughout Europe. Most sources seem to agree that the practice of playing jokes or hoaxes on people on April 1st relates to the disparity between those who accepted the revised calendar, and the traditionalists. I’ve yet to see anyone make the explicit connection that it also had to do with the Catholic church vs. Protestantism - which makes a lot more sense to me.

Also worth mentioning in the context of “fools” is the major arcana (boss cards) of the Tarot deck, the first card of which is the Fool. The Fool represents the first stage of a quest of self-fulfillment. Also closely related is the concept of a “fool’s errand“:

A fool’s errand is an activity or task that serves no practical purpose. While the term is often used to refer to the practice of a practical joke requesting a person to perform tasks that would expose them to humiliation, frustration or as part of an initiation rite or sorts, a fool’s errand can also refer to having to do something that turned out to be totally unnecessary without any sinister purpose.

It’s interesting that this is so closely related to initiation - in other words, to new beginnings. Which with April 1st as the New Year makes a great deal of sense. This also relates back to one of my favorite Bible quotes:

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound those who are mighty.”
-1 Cor 1:27

Happy April Fool’s Day!