April 1, 2012

Aristotle's April Fool's Day = A: Blogging from A to Z

Did you know that April Fool's Day originated with Aristotle?

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher. According to Wikipedia: Aristotle’s writings were the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics.

Source
Every April 1st, Aristotle would present his theories and logic to the masses in hopes of spreading knowledge and stirring the people to overtake Alexander the Great, a former pupil of his. What he found instead were "masses of fools" incapable of understanding his intellect.

Frustrated, he decided to amuse himself every April 1 by presenting the most outrageous theories to see which fools would fall for it. The crowd would then beat to death the most gullible. Ever since then, the day was known as April Fool's Day or All Fools' Day.

What was once a feared day of ridicule became a day of practical jokes and pranks.


April Fool's! I totally made that up.

Although there is much debate on the true origin of April Fool's Day, the most common theory (found summarized at multiple sites): in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII changed the calendar so that New Year's Day to January 1st from April 1st. Those who still celebrated the old New Year's were called fools.

I couldn't find anywhere online to tie this theory to how it became the prankster holiday it is today.

Do you celebrate April Fool's Day? If so, how?

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Welcome to my first post of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Please enjoy A and join me for B to Z. Check out some other great A to Z bloggers here.

17 comments:

Unknown said...

Great Idea

e said...

You had me totally believing it - well done!

I googled it too, and it looks like no one is really sure how this got started...

Wesley Copeland said...

Lol Okay you got me!

I've had fun posting fake info about a video games and photoshopping images to make it look more authentic ^_^

Admittedly the downside is that people prbably think my A-Z is now an April fools but hey, it's worth it.

Great post BTW.

Stephsco said...

I like your version: What he found instead were "masses of fools" incapable of understanding his intellect.

I admit, you got me for a second. And how fitting that Aristotle fit your "A" element on April Fool's Day!

Kela McClelland said...

That was great. I've never like April Fool's Day because it makes me skeptical of everyone and everything. My kids (5 and 4) like to play jokes, and I humor them, but I don't like it and try to not April Fool's anyone.

Great A post, can't wait to read the rest of your letters :)

smug princess said...

April Fools Day to me is my husbands birthday [which is what my A was]. Good luck with the challenge.

Unknown said...

LOL--you totally got me. Good job. :D

Fairview said...

I was thinking "really? Wow. I totally did not know this."

You got me good.

Tia Bach said...

Thanks everyone! I had fun with the fact that I couldn't find out where April Fool's Day originated. Since it was A day, Aristotle simply sprung to mind, and off I went.

I'm looking forward to visiting blogs this evening.

Hope to see you all back here sometime during the challenge.

Sarah Tokeley said...

You had me believing it right up until the beating to death part :-)

Sheila Siler said...

Totally bought it, glad you came clean at the end before I started telling other people that! Here from the challenge, glad to meet you.

Tia Bach said...

Sarah, Funny you should say that. My husband says I always ruin a good lie by talking too much. I took my "lie" just a bit too far. I should have just had the fools stoned or ridiculed. ;-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Rum-Punch Drunk said...

How do I know for sure that this whole blog is not an April Fool joke then?
Convince me

betty said...

LOL; you got me, I was believing this! What a cute way to begin the A/Z Challenge! Actually hubby and me did play a April Fool's joke on our son and he believed it; it involved a pretend earthquake (we live in California) and roads damaged where he would be driving. We got good laughs about it :)

good luck with the challenge!

betty

Stuart Lloyd said...

Great post on Aristotle and April Fools! I look forward to reading more posts from you.

Hamlet said...

Good One.

Tia Bach said...

Thanks for all the comments! I'm so enjoying my first A to Z challenge!