April Fools’ Day/El Día de los Santos Inocentes

Since my birthday is coming up I wanted to briefly talk about a conversation that I had this week with one of the teachers.

I told the teacher that my birthday was on Sunday, April 1^st and that this day was also April Fools’ Day in the United States. I then began to tell her about some of the pranks that people pull on others on this day and how my family especially tries to fool me because it’s my birthday.

She began to tell me about a day similar to April Fools’ Day that they observe in Spain, called El Día de los Santos Inocentes, or The Day of the Holy Innocents. This day is celebrated on the 28^th of December every year and the people also pull pranks on each other. The inocentes as they are called, are the gullible ones, the people who fall for these pranks. In some regions, after the pranks are performed the jokester says, “Inocente palomita que te dejaste engañar" ("You innocent little dove that let yourself be fooled"). However, nowadays, and in most areas of Spain, the jokester just cries out, “¡Inocente, Inocente!”

I did a little more research on this topic and found out that El Día de los Santos Inocentes is actually a religious holiday named in honor of the young children who were slaughtered by the order of King Herod around the time of Jesus’ birth. These children were called the santos inocentes because they were too young and innocent to have committed any sins.

Today, most of the religious aspects of El Día de los Santos Inocentes, like most other holidays, have been forgotten, and the people spend this day playing inocentadas, or practical jokes, on each other. An example of a prank preformed on this day is someone filling a sugar jar with salt, or vice-versa. Another prank would be for someone to change all of the clocks in the house. Many big companies and news stations also take part in this day; a newspaper company, for example, would publish a false story.

It seems crazy that a day commemorating the slaughter of children would turn into a big prank day, but unfortunately that’s how the world works.

It turns out; many countries have their own version of an April Fools’ Day. In France, Romany, Italy and some areas of Canada, the people try to attach a paper fish to the victim’s backs without being noticed. This is called Poisson D'avril (April’s Fish) and it also occurs on the first day of April. In Scotland, April Fool’s Day is called Hunt-the-Gowk Day and it involves a game of sealed messages. Other prank days are celebrated throughout the world, like in Korea, Denmark, Poland and other places. To me, it’s refreshing to hear that amongst all of the pain and war in the world, most countries chose a day to joke around and laugh at each other; at least I think it’s refreshing.

I guess the whole world is full of jokes!