By Emmanuel Gandu
WHY APRIL FOOL
April fool is a day generally acceptable all over the world as a day of telling lies, a day of deception, jokes, and many pranks on people, all in a lighter mood, no hard feelings.
The Roman calendar was the earliest used calendar in the Raman Empire until when Julius Caesar, the then Roman Emperor initiated reforms on that very calendar.
In the year 46 BC the Julian Calendar (named after Emperor Julius Caesar) was proposed by Julius Caesar to replace that Roman calendar.
Eventually, the Julian Calendar effectively came into use in 45 BC, thus becoming the the calendar of the time. This Julian Calendar had April 1st as its New Year date.
THE FACTS AND THE PRANKS
During the Pontificate of Pope Gregory XIII, he promulgated some changes in the Julian Calendar. This changes later gave birth to a new Calendar known as the Gregorian calendar in 1582.
While the New Year date for the Julian Calendar was 1st April, that of the newly promulgated Gregorian calendar became 1st January.
When the Roman empire and indeed the rest of the world shifted from the use of the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1582, those people who continued to celebrate the New Year on April 1st instead of January 1st were teased and called “April Fools”. They failed to realize the change from 1st. April in the Julian Calendar to 1st January in the Gregorian calendar.
THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR
The Gregorian calendar is named after Pope Gregory XIII who introduced it in October 1582.
It is made of 12 months (January to December) of 28 – 31 days in a month, with one day added to February after every 4 years thereby making that year a leap year.
A calendar date is specified by the year, then numbered according to the era, ie either BC = Before Christ, or AD = Anno Domini (Latin).
The Gregorian calendar was initially adapted by the Catholic countries of Europe in 1582, followed by the Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Church/countries over the next 3 centuries.
The Gregorian calendar is the main official calendar widely used by majority of countries in the world.
Egypt adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1875, China in 1912, Russia in 1918, Greece in 1923, and Turkey adopted in 1926.
