Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-04-11
ALL FOOLS DAY.
The Anniversary aud It's tsistory- some
utStOrtc April Fools.

| ~
utstOrtc April Fools.
On thlB day custom p-e"ails rot only
in Great Britain and in this country, but
on the continent of Europe of imposing
upon and ridiculing people in variety ol
ways. 1t is very doubtful what is the
precise origin OF this absurd custom. In
France the victim is called Poisson d Al.
rii, or "April Fish" which Bellingen in
his "Etymology of French Proverbs, 3
published in 1866, thus explains The
word Poisson he contends. is corrupted,
through the ignorance of the people, from
| Passion, and length of time has almost
totally detaced the original intention.
which was as follows That rs the pas.
sion of our Saviour took place about this
time of the year, and as the Jews sent
Christ backwards and forwards to mock
and torment him, that is, from Annas to
Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to PLATE, from
PLATE to Herod, and from Herod back
again to PLATE, this ridiculous custom
took its rise from thence, by which we
send about from one place to another
such persons MS we think proper objects
of our ridlcule. writer in the Gentle
mans Magazine, 1888, Vol. LII, p. 57S,
also conjectures that custom may have an
allusion to the mockery of the Saviour
OF the world by the Jews. Another at
tempt to explain it has been made by re-
errlng TO the fact that the year formerly
egan In Britain on the 2jth of March
hich was supposed to be the Incarnation
our Lord, and the commencement of "A
ew year was always, both among the an
Gle 4 leathens and among the modern
Christians, held as great festival. II is
to be noted then that the 1st of April is
the octave of the 25th of March, and the
close, consequently, of that feast which
waa both the festival of Aununciation
and of the New Year. Hence it may have
become day of extraordinary mirth and
festivity.
Alluding to this custom Charles Dick
ems Jun, (Gent. Mag, 1869. New series.
Vol. III. p. 5i3, says: "a prince of the
house Of Lorraine, confined in one Of
Louis VILE prisons, made his escape
on the 1st of April by swimming across
the moat, and is according commemora-
ted as Poisson d'AprH to this day.
Why this should be so is not very clear
inasmuch as the jailers and not the prince
would have been the April fools ON the
occasion. A later version of the same
story would appear to be the correct one
Here the prince and his wife, escaping in
the disguise of peasants on the 1st of
April, were recognized by servant maid
as they were passing out of the castle
gates She immediately made for the
guardroom, giving the alarm to senti-
mel by the way, but, unfortunately for
her, yet happily for the fugiiives, although
she may have forgotten that it was All
Fools Day, the soldiers on guard had
not. The information was treated with
the utmost contempt, the soldiers declin-
ing to be made game of, and while the
royal prison breakers got clear off, it is
said that the luckless informer was sound
ly buffeted by the guard for her lll-timed
iocularity. This version of the story,
however, goes to Prove nothing beyond
the fact that the custom of making April
Fools was well known in the time of Louis
Kill, but in nowise accounts for the GU
rious expression Poisson dArrU while
the swimming story explains the fish. but
leads one TO believe that the incident was
the origin of the dedication of the 1st OF
April to fools"
Another curious explanation of this
peculiar custom, giving it a Jewish origin,
has also been suggested. 1t is said tC
have begun from the mistake of Noah
sending the dove out of the ark before
the water had abated on the first day OF
the Hebrew month, answering to oul
month of April, and to perpetuate the
memory of this deliverance 1t was thought
proper, whoever forgot so remarkable q
circumstance, to punish them by sending
them upon some sleeveless errand simi.
lar to that Intellectual message upon which
the bird was sent by the patriarch.
Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities
(Vl. 7l,) says that the custom prevailing
both in England and India had Its origin
III the ancient practice Of celebrating
with festival rites the period of the yer
nal equinox, or the day when the new
year Of Persia anciently began.
Addison, III the Spectator referring t.
the year I'LL, remarks that "a custom
prevails everywhere among us on the l.
of April, when everybody takes it in In
head to make as many fools as he can. !
nelghbor of mlne--a very shallow, con
celtcd fellow, makes his boast that fu
these ten years successively he has no
made less than hundred Apnl fools
My landlady had a falling out with hInl
about fortnight ago, for sending ever
, one of her children upon some Sleeveless
errand, rs She terms it.
Her eldest son went to buy half-pel
: ny worth OF inklc ut shuemuker's tn
n eldest daughter WAS despatched hall
mile to see monster, and, III short, til
,. whole family of innocent children wei
y made April fools. Nay, my laudlady he
+ self did not escape him. The empty fc
. low has laughed upon these conceits eve
! since"
' In the north of England persons in
). posed upon this day are called APR
gouks A gouk, or gowk, is properly
;. cuckoo, and is used here, metaphoricall,
+ in vulgar language, ior fool. III
o cuckoo is, indeed, everywhere name
h contempt. = Brand, Pop, Antiq,, 1874
:, vol. l., p. l39
v The following rhyme is said after twel,
J O'Clock