I was an April Fool
"Oga, what happened to your tyre?"
I quickly jumped out to check but the pump attendant burst into laughter with the words: "April Fool". My mind came down and I joined in the laughter. Realizing today was April 1st.
The etymology of April Fools' Day is traceable, variously, but most acceptable to the 1500s when the Gregorian calendar took over from the Julian. Those who forgot the change and attempted to celebrate New Year's (previously celebrated on the 1st of April) on the wrong date were teased as "April fools."
When the western world employed the Julian calendar, years began on March 25. Festivals marking the start of the New Year were celebrated on the first day of April because March 25 fell during Holy Week. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar during the 1500s moved the New Year to January 1. According to the most widely-believed origin postulated for April Fools’ Day, those who could be tricked into believing April 1 was still the proper day to celebrate the New Year earned the sobriquet of April fools. To this end, French peasants would unexpectedly drop in on neighbors on that day in an effort to confuse them into thinking they were receiving a New Year’s call. Out of that one jape supposedly grew the tradition of testing the patience of families and friends (David Mikkelson, 2000).
It is fun to be an April Fool if the hoax is harmless. The thought of loosing a tire on my way to office raised so many probabilities as I attempted to alight from the car but immediately, it turned from furry to fun. And I shook hands with the young lady who played the prank.
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