April Fool's Day

Hello again! We hope all of you have enjoyed and learned a lot with our first entry! Now, we want to present you this second one, where you will discover more interesting facts about British Holidays! Today, we are going to focus on the traditional April Fool's Day.

Getty Images/Ildo Frazao

Although this day is celebrated in many different parts of the world such as Italy, Germany, France or Denmark to say a few, this celebration does not have the deserved recognition in all parts of the world. However, in England it is a very special day and it is considered a highly important party among its inhabitants.

April fool's day was born in France, and came to England in the XVII century. It takes place on April 1 and it is known as "the day of jokes". During this day, it is common among English people to play all kinds of jokes.

The origin of this day is not clear, but some authors say that this tradition started in France in 1582 when the King Carlos IX decided to restore the Gregorian calendar. Until that day, the New Year was celebrated from March 25 to April 1, before being moved to January 1. All of this motivated the neighbors to start exchanging silly gifts or sending fake invitations to non-existent parties, with the main goal of making fun of one another.

One interesting fact about this day is that jokes can only be played until noon. If someone plays a joke after noon it is said that the "fool" is who makes the joke and not his victim. If you don't want to participate in this peculiar day, the best option for you is stay in your home during the morning until the end of the joke's horary.

April Fool photo illustration (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

Now, we want to show you some types of famous jokes made in England in previous years. We will start with one of the most iconic: the spaghettis farm.

-In 1957, the BBC played one of the most famous jokes in England's history, which people still talk about today. The English program "Panorama" broadcasted a documentary film about some Swiss farms where people were shown raising spaghettis. This joke had an incredible This joke was really succesful and many people believed it. The BBC received a high number of calls from viewers who wanted to cultivate their own spaghettis.

A recreation of a scene from the report, showing a woman harvesting cooked spaghetti from the branches of a tree (Wikipedia)

-The chips brand "Walkers" published its new product: DIY chips (Do It Yourself), a kit in which you can make your own chips. The kit included a potato, a little bit of olive oil and some spices.

-The car manufacturer "Peugeot" announced its latest innovation: a car paint that changes color based on your mood

-Google said to have introduced a morse code in order to write emails faster. Besides, they announced Google Maps compatibilty with the 8-bitsystem of Nintendo.

These are just a few examples of the countless jokes played on this day. Some people find this celebration as a funny day in which people have fun making stupid jokes, although some of them are non credible at all. However, there are those who think the opposite, and they deteste this day because they believe it's unpleasant to receive jokes that can become serious.

Getty Images

In our opinion, receiving jokes on this day is fun as long as they're not too serious or hurtful. We find really interesting the way this day is celebrated in England where a lot of people is involved compared to the celebration in Spain. In Spain this is not a widely celebrated holiday but we enjoy watching typical pranks on the TV .

We believe that we should be especially careful with what we joke about and who we are going to joke with. So we invite you to participate in this wonderful celebration but always with moderation and respect!

Stay tuned to our blog because our next entry will be about a day that will take place very soon: Halloween!

Bibliography

-Wikipedia contributors. (2023). April Fools’ Day. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day

-April Fools’ Day: Origins, Meaning & Hoaxes. (2017, 30 marzo). HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/april-fools-day

-Mahabarata, Y. (s. f.). The Origins of April Mop’s Day: British prankster jokes in History Today, April 1, 1700. VOI - Waktunya Merevolusi Pemberitaan. https://voi.id/en/memori/41972

-Wikipedia contributors. (2023a). Spaghetti-tree Hoax. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti-tree_hoax#:~:text=The%20spaghetti%2Dtree%20hoax%20was,the%20family%20%22spaghetti%20tree%22.

-April Fools’ Day: Why do we do pranks on April 1st? (2023, 1 abril). BBC Newsround. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47750667

Easter Day and Saint Patrick's Day

We welcome you to our blog with this first entry! Today we are going to talk about two of the most important and iconic days of the British Holidays. These are the well-known Easter Day and Saint Patrick´s Day. We will see all their crucial aspects, which include the dates, the activities that English people do in them , and the reason why these days are essential on British holidays.

Firstly, we are going to talk about the famous Easter Day, which celebration takes place depending on the year (the date issue is quite a controversial topic even today), and happens not only in the United Kingdom but also in Ireland. Next Easter Day will be March 31!

photo of https://www.enjoytravel.com/en/travel-news/places-to-visit/15-best-places-to-visit-for-easter-in-the-uk

It's a Christian celebration that commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ and occurs in many places around the world. The main character in the United Kingdom is the Easter Rabbit (a long-eared, cotton-tailed creature who hops from house to house to deliver festive baskets) and his Easter Eggs. This is because it is said that a rabbit was the first to see and announce the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Another theories say that the Easter Rabbit symbol comes from a pagan tradition named "The Festival of Eostre", which honored the goddess of fertility and spring. The Easter Day is a traditional day in which it’s really popular to have a familiar dinner where people can eat all the forbidden food of the Lent. The Lent is the 40 days period of prayer, almsgiving and fasting of Christianism. This Lenten season lasts from the Ash Wednesday to the end of the Holy Thursday. Besides, they eat conventional buns, like the tasty "hot cross buns", whose main ingredients are milk, sugar and butter.

A very famous activity during this holiday is the Egg Hunt, that is very popular among the children. This activity consists on decorate eggs (usually filled with chocolate or candies) and hide them from the children so they have to try finding them. 

photo by sarayut Thaneerat/Getty Images

In medieval England, this celebration was not as festive and funny as it is nowadays. At that time, this festival consisted in religious rituals and dramatic ceremonies. Clergy and congregations organized processions, vigils and plays during all the Easter weekend. A interesting fact about the old Easter Day celebration in Medieval Ages is that this day was banned from a period of 13 years (1647-1660) by the Puritans.

photo of https://medievalisterrant.wordpress.com/

We think this is a great holiday to enjoy with your loved ones and a great day for kids to have fun during the Egg Hunt. It's interesting how a religious ceremony such as Easter Day, which originally was very strict with their procedures, has evolved along the years until the present days since it's a holiday that can be enjoyed even by non-religious people. 

It's certainly surprising to observe the differences between the Easter Day that takes place in United Kingdom compared to the Spanish's one. From our point of view the English version is much more enjoyable and fun and has a greater variety of activities.

photo of https://www.infobae.com/en/2022/04/17/easter-sunday-or-resurrection-sunday-know-the-meaning-of-each-one/

Secondly, we are going to focus on Saint Patrick's Day. First of all we have to know that this celebration has an Irish origin. Despite the larger number of Irish people that live in the UK this celebration takes places in London, March 17 specifically. The name conmmemorates the Saint Patrick of Ireland.

photo of https://cpsanadrian.educacion.navarra.es/blog/2021/03/17/st-patricks-day-2/

Saint Patrick's real name is Maewyn Succat. When he was sixteen, he was kidnaped and moved to Ireland, where he became a slave whose main duty was take care of sheeps during six years at least. In that moment, he turned profoundly religious. Then, according to the legend, he started hearing some voices that said "escape to England", and he managed to return to his country but for not too long; the voice started to say "return to Ireland". Before his returnance, he was named priest and he changed his name to Patrick. At that time, most of Irish people were pagan and he was often mistreated and imprisoned. When he died no one remembered him but as the years went by he became the pattern of Ireland.

In this day, people celebrate the inheritance eating and drinking and with the famous parade in which people sing and dance and have so much fun. Besides, other aspects that represent it are the leprechauns, the shamrocks (a type of unique clover) , the green beer and the corned beef (the typical food of this day). As we can see, the majority of these symbols are green; because this color represents the country since the Irish rebellion in 1798, since Irish soldiers wore green clothes. Actually, before this, the representative color was blue.

We think this celebration is great to remind Maewyn Succat, because he was a man who didn't have an easy life since he was mistreated for much of his life. However, he did his best to go ahead. From our point of view, he deserves to be conmmemorated in this day where people can remember him with an incredible smile.

photo by THEO WARGO/GETTY IMAGES

Bibliography

-When is Easter 2024? | How is Easter’s date determined? (s. f.). Almanac.com. https://www.almanac.com/content/when-is-easter

-Wikipedia contributors. (2023). Egg hunt. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_hunt

-What is lent? (s. f.). USCCB. https://www.usccb.org/prayer-worship/liturgical-year/lent

-Jeon, H., & O’Sullivan, A. (2023, 9 febrero). What are the Easter Bunny’s origins? The fascinating history of Easter’s favorite creature. Good Housekeeping. https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/easter-ideas/a31226078/easter-bunny-origins-history/

-English Heritage. (s. f.). How the English Celebrated Easter | English Heritage. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/easter/how-the-english-celebrated-easter/

-Medievalisterrant. (2021, 5 abril). Medieval Easter traditions. a medievalist errant. https://medievalisterrant.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/medieval-easter-traditions/

-15 best places to visit for Easter in the UK. (s. f.). EnjoyTravel.com. https://www.enjoytravel.com/en/travel-news/places-to-visit/15-best-places-to-visit-for-easter-in-the-uk

-Nuño, A. (2023, 17 marzo). San Patricio: origen, por qué se celebra y la historia de los duendes y el color verde. elconfidencial.com. https://www.elconfidencial.com/alma-corazon-vida/2023-03-17/patricio-vestimos-verde-fiesta_3367150/

-Wikipedia contributors. (2003). Saint Patrick’s Day. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick%27s_Day