My son — an aspiring filmmaker and ghosthunter — was playing around with his video camera when he captured this amazing footage … wanting to get in to the Damned Connecticut act, he asked that I post it here.
Check it out —
Happy April Fools Day!
Speaking of, I was doing a little research and it seems that finding the origin of April Fools Day is a fool’s errand in and of itself.
The most popular origin story revolves around the idea that in 1564 in France, the start of the year was moved from the end of March to January, and those who were slow to change over were mocked and had jokes played on them and gained the name Poisson d’Avril, or “April Fish,” which is what April fools are still called. Unfortunately, when the timeline of the calendar change is examined more closely, many holes sprout in the theory, including the inconvenient fact that the French new year wasn’t celebrated on April 1. There is also documented historical evidence of the tradition being celebrated as early as 1539, which also busts the myth.
It’s possible that the celebration evolved from ancient “renewal” type festivals, which often occurred in different cultures around the vernal equinox (aka the first day of spring). These events encouraged behaviors like playing pranks and general jocularity; however, there’s no hard evidence to support this theory, either.
Most likely, April Fools Day is a mutt of a holiday, vaguely descended from a number of cultures and bastardized over the centuries to the day with which we are now familiar.
If you’re interested in reading a very well-researched article on the origins of the day, we recommend reading this article at the Museum of Hoaxes.
Okay, sorry — that video just makes me smile every time I see it. I don’t doubt that it’s an April Fools joke itself.
Here’s the real link to the article. Really.