“[I] get down on my knees and pray,

We don’t get fooled again.”

The Who, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” from the album Who’s Next (1971).

    Okay, no fooling, this refrain from the Who (a British Rock Band) is aimed at being fooled politically, so to speak. I am not so foolish to get into that subject here. However, as we approach the 1^st of April, the occasion of April Fools’ Day is at hand.

    Continuing on the thread of ancient Roman holidays, April 1^st traces its roots to the Roman festival known as Hilaria (Latin for joyful) observed in ancient Rome at the end of March. The followers of the cult of Cybele celebrated this holiday by disguising themselves with masks and ridiculing others. What fun!

    The English roots for the date can be appreciated in the story by Chauncer in Canterbury Tales (1392) of the vain rooster who is tricked by a fox (on April 1). This account is more in line with the modern custom of playing a prank or a hoax on others. The prankster culminates the joke by announcing “April Fools’” to the recipient of the thoughtful gesture. Beware.

    I am nobody’s fool. This is one of the hundreds of expressions that deal with either being a fool, not being a fool, being foolish or being fooled.

 E.g., Elvis Presley’s “If I Am a Fool for Loving You.”

  I have however been the recipient of some good April Fools’ Day pranks.

    Whatever prank or joke may be played you or you on another, Happy April Fools’ Day. I will want to hear about it later.