Every December 28 in Spain and Latin America, people play pranks on each other and some media outlets publish false news for April Fools’ Day, or the Day of the Innocent Saints, as the Catholic Church calls it.
However, this day has its origin in a very unholy story: the killing of small children recorded in one of the four Christian gospels, that of Matthew.
According to the Christian version contained in this gospel, more than 2,000 years ago Herod I decided to annihilate all children under the age of two in Bethlehem, with the aim of killing the newborn Jesus.
Apparently, he made this decision after hearing the story of some “wizards from the East”, who warned him that an infant had just been born who would be the king of the Jews and consequently would endanger his reign.
The Catholic Church decided to honor dead infants as “the first martyrs of Jesus“, and with the passage of time they became the “Holy Innocents”.
But how did such a sad commemoration turn into such a joyous day?
There are several theories.
different origins
One version of the story claims that Herod asked the “wizards from the East” where the boy who would be the future king was, but the Three Wise Men apparently tricked the monarch by leading him astray.
Another theory about the joyous celebration goes back to a grandson of Herod: Herod Agrippa II, king of Chalcis.
This regent – who is remembered for his life of excess – decided to celebrate his thirtieth anniversary by honoring his grandfather (and the slaughter of children) with a week of festivities.
However, that day he decided to issue arrest warrants and punishment for all his ministers, who could not flee because of the efficiency of the royal guard.
In the end, the frightened guests were forced to attend the celebration and some received a seal from the monarch that declared them “innocent”. This macabre story, some say, is the true origin of the date.
Other scholars locate the origin of this playful turn not in the Jerusalem of biblical times but in medieval Europe, where the last month of the year and the first of the following year were marked by boreal winter and less activity in the countryside, where the majority of the population worked.
“The people, idle, gave themselves up then to a festive, happy and sardonic laughter that equated actors and observers, who were made participants in the joke to alleviate the daily hardships, which occurred in a context of iron social discipline,” he wrote. Spanish historian Mario González-Linares.
Then, between December and January, a series of festivities took place -such as the festival of fools or the festival of the donkey– where the joke played a fundamental role: it allowed people to make fun of the most ingrained social conventions.
Perhaps the most extreme of these festivals was that of the insane, which was officially prohibited by the Church in the Basel Council of 1435.
In his article “Laughter and delirium: the party of the crazy”, published in the cultural magazine Antwerp, González-Linares explains who these crazy people were who reigned at that party.
“Crazy was the deranged, but also the foolish, the deformed, the crippledmarginalized whose inexcusable crime consisted of not finding a place within a social scheme characterized by its rigidity and verticality”.
Those who interpreted these crazy and deformed were, as RP Flögel describes in the article by González-Linares, the lowest levels of the clergy:
“In the cathedrals a jester-bishop was appointed. He then celebrated a solemn office and gave his blessing. The disguised priests entered the choir dancing, jumping and singing picaresque songs. The subdeacons ate sausages, played cards and dice on the altar; instead of incense, they burned soles of old shoes and excrement. After mass, each one danced and ran around the church to his liking, and gave himself up to the greatest excesses “.
In addition to jokes, pranks and mockery, academics such as Ramón García Pradas, from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, have linked the fiesta de los locos to the emergence of a type of theater in the Middle Ages that played with parody. and satire to criticize the social and political situation of the time.
Spring, fish and stories
Many of those European countries in whose churches and streets the December and January festivities were celebrated today carry out their April 1 April and not on December 28.
This day is known as April Fool’s Day (April Fool’s Day) in Anglo-Saxon countries, such as poisson d’avril (April fish) in Francophones and as April fish (in Italian).
The origin of this date is also discussed and there are various theories.
Some historians believe that, as with the December and January festivities, April 1 also comes into play. the calendar and the weather.
At the end of March and the beginning of April, the European spring begins, which inspired “renewal festivities” in the fields that date back to roman times.
As part of the festivities, normal life went out the window. According to historian Andrea Livesey. “The servants could control the masters and the children could control their parents.”
So it soon became a tradition to prank people on that day as well.
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