Meanings of Mosque, Mecca an Mohd

B i s m i l l a a h i r R a h m a a n i r R a h e e m




Assalaamu `Alaykum wa Rahmatullaahi wa Barakaatuhu



Dear Brothers and Sisters in Islam,



I pray you are all well by the grace of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala.



This invented "Mosque=Mosquito / Mecca=Whisky House / Mohd=A dog which has a

big mouth" email message has been in circulation for the past 8-9 years,

posted mostly by well-meaning but uninformed Muslims.



Quote: <<< FOR MUSLIM BROTHERS & SISTERS



CORRECTION



Assalamu Alaikum, Its been observed that most of us write "MOSQUE" for "Masjid"

and even calling it as Mosque in daily routine, what elders and teachers say

that the word "MOSQUE" means the house of mosquitoes not Masjid. So better be

careful next time instead of writing mosque, u can write MASJID it doesn't

matter. Most we have seen the spelling of MAKKAH as MECCA. the word MECCA means

"Sharab Khaana/(whisky house). So let all of us careful of writing MECCA. Many

people, whose names start with MUHAMMAD, write in a short form as "Mohd". This

"Mohd" means "A dog which has a big mouth". Guys please forward this message to

Muslim brothers & Sisters as possible. Thanks, Best Regards, Saifee Surka >>>

Unquote.

__________________________________



Here are some specifics vis-a-vis the above claims:



1. Quote: <<< "Its been observed that most of us write "MOSQUE" for "Masjid"

and even calling it as Mosque in daily routine, what elders and teachers say

that the word "MOSQUE" means the house of mosquitoes not Masjid, - unquote. >>>



The word Mosque from the French means mosquee - from old French mousquaie, from

old Italian moschea or moscheta, from old Spanish mezquita, from Arabic masjid,

has nothing whatsoever to do with the origin of Mosquito (Spanish and

Portuguese diminutive of mosca, and Latin musca, meaning fly - as in the

insect. A more interesting derivative of the same root is 'musket', the weapons

from which ammo flies out! In fact the 'shot' emanating from the musket shares

more characteristics with the insect: it flies, buzzes, and stings!).

Incidentally, Mosquito is also the name of an American Indian tribe.



Please read the following information answered by the Scientific Research

Committee - IslamToday.net

http://www.islamtoday.com/fat_archives/show_detail...cfm?q_id=676&main_cat_id=20



Etymology of the English word 'mosque'



Question: There is a book written by a Muslim revert, Yahiya Emerick entitled

"The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Islam." The author discusses

within it many things, including the etymology of the word “mosque”. He wrote

that this word is derived from the Spanish word for "mosquito". He claimed that

the word was first used during the Christian invasion of Muslim Spain in the

15th century when the forces of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella boasted they

would swat out Muslim prayer houses like so many mosquitoes. Is this true?



Answer:



This etymology is incorrect.



The Spanish word for "mosquito" is mosquito and literally means "little fly".

This is a case where the English language borrowed the word directly from the

Spanish.



The word for "fly" in Spanish is mosca, which is derived from the Latin musca.

The diminutive suffix "-ito" is attached to it to form the word mosquito or

"little fly".



The Spanish term for "mosque" is mezquita, derived from the old Spanish

mesquita. This word was most certainly derived from the Arabic word masjid,

which many Arabs then and now pronounce as masgid.



In Spain during the era of Muslim rule - and this was before the time of King

Ferdinand - Spanish speakers were using the word mosquito for the insect and

the word mesquita for the Muslim place of worship. The two words are not

related to one another in any way.



The word "mosque" was introduced into the English language in the late 14th or

early 15th century from the French. It comes from the French word mosque, from

the old French word mousquaie. The French, in turn, derived the word from the

Italian word moschea from moscheta. The Italians got it either directly from

the Arabic word masjid or from the old Spanish mesquita. - Unquote.



________________________________________



References:



1. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition; ©

2000 Houghton Mifflin Company.

2. Online Etymology Dictionary, ETYMOLOGY Moo-Muc http://www.etymonline.com

mosque c.1400, moseak, probably from M.Fr. mosquée, from It. moschea, from

Sp. mesquita (modern mezquita), from Arabic masjid "temple,

place of worship," from sajada "he worshipped" + prefix ma- denoting

"place." In M.E. as muskey, moseache, etc.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=Mosque&searchmode=phrase

mosquito c.1583, from Sp. mosquito "little gnat," dim. of mosca "fly," from

L. musca "fly," from PIE base *mu-, perhaps imitative of the sound

of humming insects. Colloquial form skeeter is attested from 1839.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=Mosquito&searchmode=phrase



___________________________



Here are two more links which refute the myth that the word mosque originated

from mosquito.



http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/defaul..._9-2-2003_pg3_7

http://www.takeourword.com/TOW175/page2.html

________________________________________



2. Quote: <<< " .... Mecca means "Sharab Khaana/(whisky house)" - unquote. >>>



The spelling of the name "Mecca", for most anglophones, Mecca has long been the

accepted spelling for the Holy City. The word is a transliteration of the

original Arabic, and has become part of the English language.



Where this claim is concerned, the word, Mecca, does not - for instance - mean

sharaab khaana! There are no such meaning/translation in any authentic Arabic,

English or foreign language dictionaries.



The common usage of the word Mecca - or mecca - in English (derived from the

position of Mecca among Muslims) implies 'centre' or 'important meeting point'

or a place to which people of a special group flock, as in "Wimbledon is the

Mecca of Tennis" and Hawaai is "the tourist mecca". Such derived usages in

English are common within the Western culture. For example, the Wisden Cricket

Monthly, Wisden Book of Cricket Law and Wisden Book of Test Cricket are often

called "The Cricket Bible" and Gibbon's is called the "Bible of stamp

collectors" are common similes used. Less used but seen in major writings are

phrases like "The holy grail of drug addicts ..."



The word Mecca now refers to more than just the geographical location (i.e. not

only the Holy City in Saudi Arabia) , and is used to describe any center of

activity sought or converged upon by a group of people with a common interest.

Las Vegas, for example, is sometimes described as 'the Mecca of gambling,' and

'Mecca Bingo' a division of The Rank Group Plc., which Muslims find these

out-of-context uses very offensive. There is no doubt in many minds that the

insensitivity displayed in the naming of the fairly old chain known as Mecca

Dancing Clubs (a very popular series of dance halls that may also house

drinking areas in the UK) was not entirely an act of naive usage of language.



Mecca is also used in the names of two towns in the USA, a soft drink and two

acronyms:



a.. Mecca, California, a town in Riverside County, California, USA.

b.. Mecca, Indiana, a town in Parke County, Indiana, USA.

c.. Mecca-Cola a cola-flavoured carbonated beverage[1]

d.. MECCA is also the acronym for Model Evaluation Consortium for Climate

Assessment and Missile Environment Computer Control Analysis that I know of ...

and there are bound to be others.

__________________________



[1] Mecca-Cola was launched in France, in November 2002, by entrepreneur Tawfik

Mathlouthi, as a means of aiding Palestinians by tapping into demand for

alternative products in European countries. He had been inspired by a similar

Iranian product, Zam Zam Cola, which was already successful in Saudi Arabia and

Bahrain, and in fact only decided to launch his own brand when he was unable to

agree on terms for a distribution contract with Zam Zam. Mecca-Cola in turn

inspired the creation of Qibla Cola in the United Kingdom.

__________________________





If Mecca means "whisky house," why was there no public condemnation from the

Saudi Arabian government when anglophones first started using the word "Mecca"

- for example when the British explorer Sir Richard Burton in 1853 disguised

himself as an Afghan Muslim to visit and write his "Personal Narrative of a

Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Mecca?" (Whisky house? How utterly absurd!)



However, in an effort to distinguish between the metaphorical and official

references to the holy site, the Saudi Arabian government in the 1980s began

promoting a new transliteration, 'Makkah al-Mukarramah' ( مكة المكرمة), which

is closer to the original Arabic. While this new usage has been officially

adopted by the U.S. Department of State

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3584.htm, its spread is still incipient among

anglophones at large (i.e. it is not part of the active vocabulary of

English-speakers.)



3. Quote: <<< Many people, whose names start with MUHAMMAD, write in a short

form as "Mohd". This "Mohd" means "A dog which has a big mouth". - unquote. >>>



As for this other concocted description that the short form name "Mohd" for

Muhammad stands for "A dog which has a big mouth" - I could not find any

Islamic information to support this most absurd claim. Surprisingly, nor could

I find any refutation from any of the scholars.



Mohd is a non-word (the combination of letters has no possible base in any of

the Western Romance languages and gives away the inventor's illiteracy). I

think the people (non-Muslims or Muslims, only Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala

knows best) who 'invented' this definition - or, at least, gave currency to

this via email, to create alarm - is more guilty of 'blasphemy' than those he

or she deceptively accuses. Googling this in dictionaries or thesauri will not

offer up any such word, I assure you. However, with this emailed falsehood

being forwarded around the web by "well-meaning" Muslims, I have no doubt that

this insult to our Prophet sall Allaahu`alayhi wa sallam will become added to

the current usage in many languages. One test would be to google it now (all

across Google, as well as in the dictionary section alone) ... where it'll turn

up nothing ... and in a few months from now, when it will indicate the meaning

given it, in most cases, with reference to the above forwarded message. Years

later, the origin will have been forgotten and another obnoxious word set in

motion to further malign Islam.





These claims are nothing more than a deliberate fundamentalist prank preying

upon bristling Muslim senitivities to further divide the growing chasm proposed

(and engineered, in some ways) by those who created and supported the so-called

'clash of civilization' theories. That this is not considered by the Muslims

who believe in such faked information and copy, paste and forward it here,

there and everywhere used to amaze me ... but nothing about anyone leaning

towards the right path does that any more. Muslims are responsible for checking

and setting things straight - by what they say, read, write and transmit,

inshaa`Allaah.



Please read the following excerpt from an article entitled: "Verification"

http://www.sunnahonline.com/ilm/istiqaamah/nov1996_d.htm:

Quote: Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan (hafidahullaah) relates: "Allaah - the

Majestic, the Most High - orders us to verify any news that reaches us

concerning a group or party from amongst the Muslims, when an evil news reaches

us which necessitates fighting or opposing this group. Allaah - the Mighty, the

Most High - orders us not be hasty and rush into this affair, until we have

verified the matter. Allaah - the Most Perfect - says:



"O you who believe! When a wicked person comes to you with some news,

ascertain and verify it, lest you harm someone in ignorance and then afterwards

regret for what you have done." (al-Hujuraat 49:6)



Meaning: If some news reaches you about a group or party from amongst the

people, concerning an action that they have done and which deserves to be

fought against, then do not be hasty about the matter, nor announce war against

them, nor attack them - until you have verified the authenticity of the

report." (Wujoobut-Tathbbat fil-Akhbaari wa Ihtiraamil-`Ulemaa, pp. 22-23)



Imaam Muslim related in the introduction to his Saheeh (no.5):



Aboo Hurayrah (radiyallaahu`anhu) states that the Prophet, Sall Allaahu `alayhi

wa sallam said: "It is enough to render a man a liar that he relates everything

he hears."



Shaykh `Alee Hasan al-Halabee (hafidahullaah) said:



"The daa`ee (caller) must be careful in everything, particularly in regards to

what he hears from people, or what he reads in books. So it is an obligation

upon him to check and verify everything which reaches his ears or eyes, before

spreading it and circulating it amongst the people. His carefulness will be

increased with regards to two cases:



Firstly: When what is being conveyed to him is connected to the Religion and

the Sharee`ah, such as something being quoted as a hadeeth, or a fiqh ruling,

and its like.



Secondly: If someone reports something bad about a person, or an evil word from

someone. He must check its correctness, carefully find out the reality and

what is correct, and not hasten to transmit it and add it to the stream of

news!" (Source: Arba`oon Hadeethan fid-Da`wah wad-Du`aat p. 63) - unquote.



4. Quote: <<< "Guys please forward this message to Muslim brothers & Sisters as

possible." >>> Unquote.



Yes!!! Please forward this message too, so our Muslim brothers and sisters will

know the above facts and be duly informed not to transmit these deliberately

engineered misinformation about Islam and our Prophet sall Allaahu`alayhi wa

sallam, inshaa`Allaah.



"And do not follow (blindly) any information of which you have no direct

knowledge. (Using your faculties of perception and conception, you must verify

it for yourself). In the Court of your Lord, you will be held accountable for

your hearing, sight, and the faculty of reasoning." (Al Israa 17:36 -

interpretation of the meaning)





May Allah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala strenghten us in our Deen. Aameen.

Source: http://www.mail-archive.com/muslim@yahoogroups.com/msg01847.html

Origin of April Fools Day ??

This is a follow-up of the last post about April-fool's day.
Summary: A discussion of theories about the origin of April Fool’s Day.

Introduction

In 1708 a correspondent wrote in to the British Apollo magazine to ask, “Whence proceeds the custom of making April Fools?” The question is one that many people are still asking today.

The puzzle that April Fool’s Day presents to cultural historians is that it was only during the eighteenth century that detailed references to it (and curiosity about it) began to appear. But at that time, the custom was already well established throughout northern Europe and was regarded as being of great antiquity. How had the tradition been adopted by so many different European cultures without provoking more comments in the written record?

References to April Fool’s Day can be found as early as the 1500s. However, these early references were infrequent and tended to be vague and ambiguous. Shakespeare, writing in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, made no mention of April Fool’s Day, despite being, as Charles Dickens Jr. put it, a writer who “delights in fools in general.”

Many theories have been put forward about how the tradition began. Unfortunately, none of them are very compelling. So the origin of the “custom of making April Fools” remains as much a mystery to us as it was back in 1708.

The Calendar-Change Theory

A French “April Fish” postcard.The most popular theory about the origin of April Fool’s Day involves the French calendar reform of the sixteenth century.

The theory goes like this: In 1564 France reformed its calendar, moving the start of the year from the end of March to January 1. Those who failed to keep up with the change, who stubbornly clung to the old calendar system and continued to celebrate the New Year during the week that fell between March 25th and April 1st, had jokes played on them. Pranksters would surreptitiously stick paper fish to their backs. The victims of this prank were thus called Poisson d’Avril, or April Fish—which, to this day, remains the French term for April Fools—and so the tradition was born.

The calendar-change hypothesis seems, on the surface, like a logical explanation for the origin of April Fools. However, the hypothesis becomes less plausible if we examine the history of calendar reform in more detail.

The Julian Calendar

The Julian Calendar, established by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, made January 1 the first day of the year. But as Christianity spread throughout Europe, efforts were made to christianize the calendar by moving New Year’s Day to dates of greater theological significance, such as Christmas or Easter. Some countries continued to use January 1, justifying this as the date of Christ’s circumcision. As a consequence, by the 1500s the European calendar system was a mess. Not only had errors in the Julian calendar caused the solar year to diverge from the calendar year, but also countries were beginning the year on different dates.

Most regions in France had been using Easter as the start of the year since at least the fourteenth century. This caused particular confusion since the date of Easter was tied to the lunar cycle and changed from one year to the next. Sometimes the same date would occur twice in a year.

However, the French used Easter as the start of the year primarily for legal and administrative purposes. January 1, following the Roman custom, was widely regarded as the traditional start of the year, and it was the day when people exchanged gifts.

Sixteenth-Century Reform

The practice of starting the year on Easter Day caused enormous practical inconvenience, so around 1500 many people in France began to use January 1 as the start of the calendar year. For instance, in early sixteenth-century French books, it is common to see both forms of dating listed side-by-side (for titles published in January, February, or March). By the mid-sixteenth century, a calendar system beginning on January 1 was in wide use in France.

In 1563 King Charles IX decreed January 1 to be the first day of the year, thus aligning legal convention with what had become the popular practice. His edict was passed into law by the French Parliament on Dec. 22, 1564.

Eighteen years later, in 1582, Pope Gregory issued a papal bull decreeing sweeping calendar reform. The Gregorian reform included moving the start of the year to January 1, as well as creating a leap-year system and eliminating ten days from the month of October 1582 in order to correct the drift of the calendar. The Pope had no formal power to make governments accept this reform, but he urged Christian nations to do so. France immediately accepted the reform, although it had already changed the start of the year in 1564. (Many histories of April Fool’s Day mistakenly suggest that France only moved the start of the year in 1582 when it accepted the Gregorian calendar reform in its entirety.)

With this history in mind, it becomes clear that the calendar-change hypothesis is a problematic explanation for the origin of April Fool’s Day. The switch to January 1 did not occur suddenly in France. It was a gradual process, spanning an entire century. And even before the switch, the French New Year had no obvious connection to April 1st.

British Calendar Change

The calendar-change hypothesis is more plausible if applied to Britain, because it was the British, not the French, who observed New Year’s Day on March 25 (the date of the christian Feast of Annunciation), followed by a week of festivities culminating on April 1. In fact, the earliest version of the calendar-change hypothesis to be found in print, dating from 1766, does place the argument in a British context. A correspondent to the Gentleman’s Magazine in April 1766 wrote:

“The strange custom prevalent throughout this kingdom, of people making fools of one another upon the first of April, arose from the year formerly beginning, as to some purpose, and in some respects, on the twenty-fifth of March, which was supposed to be the incarnation of our Lord; it being customary with the Romans, as well as with us, to hold a festival, attended by an octave, at the commencement of the new year—which festival lasted for eight days, whereof the first and last were the principal; therefore the first of April is the octave of the twenty-fifth of March, and, consequently, the close or ending of the feast, which was both the festival of the Annunciation and the beginning of the new year.”

Britain only changed the start of its calendar year to January 1 in 1752. By this time April Fool’s Day was already a well-established tradition. So confusion about the calendar change could not have been responsible for the origin of the custom in Britain. But it is possible, as the correspondent to Gentleman’s Magazine speculated, that the festival held on April 1 (the “octave” of the March 25th calendar year change) evolved into April Fool’s Day. However, this is pure speculation, undermined by the lack of any other compelling evidence that the custom originated in Britain. The earliest unambiguous references to April Fool’s Day actually come from continental Europe, suggesting it is there that April Fool’s Day began.

Early References

Pre-eighteenth century references to April Fool’s Day provide clues about where the custom originated. Unfortunately, many of these references are ambiguous, and their significance is difficult to determine.

1392: Chaucer

What is possibly the first reference to April Fool’s Day can be found in the work of Chaucer. Unfortunately, the reference is so ambiguous as to be worthless as historical evidence.

In the Nun’s Priest’s Tale (written around 1392), Chaucer tells the story of the vain cock Chauntecler who falls for the tricks of a fox, and as a consequence is almost eaten. The narrator describes the tale as occurring:

When that the monthe in which the world bigan
That highte March, whan God first maked man,
Was complet, and passed were also
Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two

This passage has caused enormous confusion among Chaucer scholars, since it appears to be self-contradictory. Does it mean the events occur thirty-two days (“thritty dayes and two”) after March “was complet” (i.e. May 3), or thirty-two days “Syn March bigan” (since March began), i.e. April 1? If the latter interpretation is correct, the tale takes place on April Fool’s Day, which seems appropriate for a story of a foolish cock and sly fox. Could Chaucer have chosen this date purposefully, setting the tale on April 1st because of the tradition of tricks and foolery associated with the day?

Most editors of Chaucer don’t think so. The most popular interpretation of this passage is that Chaucer meant May 3, so editors often change the text to read “Syn March [was gon]”. However, the historian Peter Travis has argued that Chaucer did not intend to provide a precise date at all, but was instead purposefully using confusing language in order to parody the language of Medieval philosophy.

Whatever Chaucer may have meant, we can’t conclude, based on these few lines, that he was aware of a custom of playing pranks on April 1st.

1508: Eloy d’Amerval

The next possible reference to April Fool’s Day we find is in a 1508 poem written by Eloy d’Amerval, a French choirmaster and composer. The poem is titled Le livre de la deablerie. According to Wikipedia, it consists of “a dialogue between Satan and Lucifer, in which their nefarious plotting of future evil deeds is interrupted periodically by the author, who among other accounts of earthly and divine virtue, records useful information on contemporary musical practice.”

The poem would only be of interest to historians of music, except that it includes the line, “maquereau infâme de maint homme et de mainte femme, poisson d’avril.”

The phrase “poisson d’avril” (April Fish) is the French term for an April Fool, but it is unclear whether d’Amerval’s use of the term referred to April 1st specifically. He might have intended the phrase simply to mean a foolish person.

1539: Eduard de Dene

The Flemish writer Eduard De Dene published a comical poem in 1539 about a nobleman who hatches a plan to send his servant back and forth on absurd errands on April 1st, supposedly to help prepare for a wedding feast. The servant recognizes that what’s being done to him is an April 1st joke. The poem is titled “Refereyn vp verzendekens dach / Twelck den eersten April te zyne plach.” This is late medieval Dutch meaning (roughly) “Refrain on errand-day / which is the first of April.” In the closing line of each stanza, the servant says, “I am afraid… that you are trying to make me run a fool’s errand.” (Thanks to Marco Langbroek for the Dutch translation.)

At last, what we have here is a fairly clear reference to a custom of playing practical jokes on April 1st. So we can say that April Fool’s Day dates back at least to the sixteenth century. Because of this reference (and the other, vague French reference), historians believe that April Fool’s Day must have originated in continental northern Europe and then spread to Britain.

1632: Escape of the Duke of Lorraine

According to legend, the Duke of Lorraine and his wife were imprisoned at Nantes. They escaped on April 1, 1632 by disguising themselves as peasants and walking through the front gate. Someone noticed them escaping and told the guards. But the guards believed the warning to be a “poisson d’Avril” (or April Fool’s Day joke) and laughed at it, thus allowing the Duke and his wife to escape.

It is not known if any part of this legend is true.

1686: John Aubrey

The English antiquarian John Aubrey collected many notes about popular customs and superstitions, as research for a contemplated work to be titled, Remains of Gentilism and Judaism. In 1686 he wrote, “Fooles holy day. We observe it on ye first of April. And so it is kept in Germany everywhere.” The collected notes were published posthumously.

So by the late seventeenth century, April Fool’s Day had definitely spread to Britain.

1698: Washing the Lions

The April 2, 1698 edition of Dawks’s News-Letter (a British newspaper) reported that “Yesterday being the first of April, several persons were sent to the Tower Ditch to see the Lions washed.” Sending gullible victims to the Tower of London to see the “washing of the lions” (a non-existent ceremony) was a popular prank. It became traditional for this prank to be played on April Fool’s Day. Examples of it occur as late as the mid-nineteenth century. For more about the history of this prank, see the article: Washing the Lions.

In the eighteenth century written references to April Fool’s Day became numerous and appeared throughout Europe.

Renewal Festivals

Almost every culture in the world has some kind of festival in the first months of the year to celebrate the end of winter and the return of spring. Anthropologists call these “renewal festivals.” Often they involve ritualized forms of mayhem and misrule. The wearing of disguises is common. People play pranks on friends and strangers. The social order is temporarily inverted. Servants might get to order around masters, or children challenge the authority of parents and teachers. However, the disorder is always bounded within a strict timeframe, and tensions are defused with laughter and comedy. The social order is symbolically challenged, but then restored, reaffirming the stability of the society, just as the cold months of winter temporarily challenge biological life, and yet the cycle of life continues, returning with the spring.

April Fool’s Day has all the characteristics of a renewal festival. For one day forms of behavior that are normally not allowed (lying, deception, playing pranks) become acceptable, and yet the disorder is bounded within a strict timeframe. Traditionally, no pranks are supposed to be played after 12 o’clock noon of the first. Social hierarchies and tensions are exposed, but hostility is defused with laughter.

For as long as people have been speculating about April Fool’s Day, they have noticed the similarities between it and other springtime “renewal” festivals. Many historians have theorized that April Fool’s Day evolved directly out of some such festival practiced in ancient times. A direct connection between April Fool’s Day and any of the Roman-era festivals seems unlikely, though it is quite possible that the tradition evolved out of a medieval festival held around the time of the Vernal equinox (such as the New Year’s festivals at the end of March, as discussed above). Nevertheless, there is no agreement about which festival the tradition of April Foolery developed out of. Below is a list of some of the festivals that have most frequently been suggested as its forerunners.

The Saturnalia

The Saturnalia, by Antoine-François Callet The Saturnalia was a Roman winter festival observed at the end of December. It involved dancing, drinking, and general merrymaking. People exchanged gifts, slaves were allowed to pretend that they ruled their masters, and a mock king, the Saturnalicius princeps (or Lord of Misrule), reigned for the day. By the fourth century AD the Saturnalia had transformed into a January 1 New Year’s Day celebration, and many of its traditions were incorporated into the observance of Christmas.

Hilaria

In late March the Romans honored the resurrection of Attis, son of the Great Mother Cybele, with the Hilaria celebration. This involved rejoicing and the donning of disguises.

Holi

Further afield in India, there was Holi, known as the festival of color, during which street celebrants threw colored powder and water at each other. This holiday was held on the full-moon day of the Hindu month of Phalguna (usually the end of February or the beginning of March).

Festival of Lud

Northern Europeans observed an ancient festival to honor Lud, a Celtic god of humor. There were also popular Northern European customs that made sport of the hierarchy of the Druids.

Feast of Fools

The medieval Festus Fatuorum (Feast of Fools) evolved out of the Saturnalia. On this day celebrants elected a Lord of Misrule and parodied church rituals, often in extremely blasphemous ways. The Church condemned the custom, but had little luck eradicating it despite frequent decrees forbidding it. It endured from the fifth century until the sixteenth century.

Regional British Festivals

Some festivals practiced in regions of Britain during the Middle Ages have similarities to April Fool’s Day. Hoke-Tide (or Hock-Tide) was celebrated around Easter. Men and women would stop strangers of the opposite sex on the roads and tie them up, only untying them in return for money, which was to be used for a pious purpose. Various rowdy games would also be played. Shig-Shag (or Shick-Shack) Day was observed on May 20. Celebrants placed sprigs of apple oak in their hats or lapels. This was supposedly done to demonstrate loyalty to the monarchy, since Charles II was said to have hidden in an Oak Apple tree to escape the forces of Cromwell. However, the tradition probably had roots in pagan tree-worship customs. Anyone not wearing the oak might be accosted and mocked, but only until noon. After noon the obligation to “have shig-shag” ceased.

Mythological Origins

Scholars in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, suspecting April Fool’s Day to be of great antiquity, occasionally tried to locate its origins in ancient mythology. Such theories never found wide acceptance, but they’re included here since they were so often raised in discussions of April Fool’s Day.

Roman Mythology

In Roman mythology Pluto, the God of the Dead, abducted Proserpina and brought her to live with him in the underworld. Proserpina called out to her mother Ceres (the Goddess of grain and the harvest) for help, but Ceres, who could only hear the echo of her daughter’s voice, searched in vain for Proserpina. Some scholars theorized that the fruitless search of Ceres for her daughter (commemmorated during the Roman festival of Cerealia) was the mythological antecedent of the fool’s errands popular on April 1st.

Christian Mythology

It was once popular to christianize April Fool’s Day by locating its origin in Biblical traditions. For instance, the tradition was attributed to Noah’s mistake of sending a dove out from the ark before the flood waters had subsided (thereby sending the dove on a fool’s errand). A second story suggests that the day commemorates the time when Jesus was sent from Pilate to Herod and back again. The phrase “Sending a man from Pilate to Herod” (an old term for sending someone on a fool’s errand) was often pointed to as proof of this origin theory.

National Origin Theories

There are theories of the origin of April Fool’s Day specific to Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and France. None of these theories offers a compelling explanation of the day’s origin. However, it is a sign of the cross-cultural nature of the tradition that four different countries should attempt to take credit for it.

France

The French origin theory (the calendar-change hypothesis) was discussed above. It alleges that the custom originated when King Charles IX reformed the calendar, moving the start of the year from April 1 to January 1. People who continued to celebrate New Years on April 1 were mocked and had pranks played on them, thus initiating the custom of April 1st foolery. This has become, worldwide, the most popular theory of the origin of April Fool’s Day, despite its flaws.

The French also have a theory that traces the origin of the custom back to the abundance of fish to be found in French streams and rivers during early April when the young fish had just hatched. These young fish were easy to fool with a hook and lure. Therefore, the French called them ‘Poisson d’Avril’ or ‘April Fish.’ Soon it became customary (according to this theory) to fool people on April 1, as a way of celebrating the abundance of foolish fish. The French still use the term ‘Poisson d’Avril’ to describe April Fool’s Day pranks. They also observe the custom of giving each other chocolate fish on April 1.

Great Britain

In this 1630 woodcut, a citizen of Gotham is shown trying to trap a bird inside a roofless fence. British folklore links April Fool’s Day to the town of Gotham, the legendary town of fools located in Nottinghamshire. According to the legend, it was traditional in the 13th century for any road that the King placed his foot upon to become public property. So when the citizens of Gotham heard that King John planned to travel through their town, they refused him entry, not wishing to lose their main road. When the King heard this, he sent soldiers to the town. But when the soldiers arrived in Gotham, they found the town full of lunatics engaged in foolish activities such as drowning fish or attempting to cage birds in roofless fences. Their foolery was all an act, but the King fell for the ruse and declared the town too foolish to warrant punishment. Ever since then, according to legend, April Fool’s Day has commemmorated their trickery.

Germany

On April 1, 1530 a meeting of lawmakers was supposed to occur in Augsburg in order to consider various financial matters. Because of time considerations, the meeting did not take place. But numerous speculators, who had bet on the meeting occurring, lost their money and were ridiculed. This is said to have been the origin of the tradition of playing pranks on April 1.

The Netherlands

On April 1, 1572 Dutch rebels captured the town of Den Briel from Spanish troops led by Lord Alva. This military success eventually led to the independence of the Netherlands from Spain. A Dutch rhyme goes: “Op 1 april / Verloor Alva zijn Bril.” This translates to: “On April 1st / Alva lost his ‘glasses’”. “Bril” means glasses in Dutch, but is also a pun on the name of the town, Den Briel. It is claimed that the tradition of pranks on April 1st arose to commemorate the victory in Den Briel and humiliation of the Spanish commander.

References

• Jane M. Hatch (ed.). The American Book of Days. New York, 1978. p: 314-316.
• Hennig Cohen and Tristam Potter Coffin (eds.). The Folklore of American Holidays. Gale, 1999. p: 191-193.
• Walsh, William. (1898). “April Fool Day, or All Fools’ Day.” in Curiosities of Popular Customs. J.B. Lippincott Company. Philadelphia: 58-62.
• “Calendar.” (2001). Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. p.223.
• Martin, Denis-Constant. (Nov. 2001). “Politics Behind The Mask: Studying Contemporary Carnivals in Political Perspective, Theoretical and Methodological Suggestions.” Research in question. No. 2.
• Burton, William B. (April 1840). “The First of April.” Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and American Monthly Review. Philadelphia.
• Roberts, Peter. (1815). “April Day.” in The Cambrian Popular Antiquities. E. Williams, London: 113-117.
• Travis, Peter. (1997). “Chaucer’s Chronographiae, the Confounded Reader, and Fourteenth-Century Measurements of Time.” in Constructions of Time in the Late Middle Ages. Poster, C. & Utz, R.J. (eds.) Northwestern University Press: 1-34.
• Aubrey, J. (1686). Remains of Gentilisme and Judaisme.
• Meder, Theo. “Een bloemlezing uit de Volksverhalenbank.” PDF File.
• Favrod, Justin & Morerod, Jean-Daniel. “D-1er Avril: Poissons et Calembours.”
• Tilley, Arthur. (1904). “Appendix D: On the beginning of the year in France between 1515 and 1565.” in The Literature of the French Renaissance. Cambridge University Press.