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Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: April Fools Day

On Calendars & Feast Days

02 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 96 Comments

Tags

Annunciation, April Fool, April Fools Day, Edict of Roussillon, Halloween, Marian Feast Days, Paolo de Matteis

Annunciation by Paolo de Matteis, 1712. The white lily in the angel’s hand is symbolic of Mary’s purity in Marian art.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

the Feast of the annunciation

I remember a time when the Feast of the Annunciation (Latin Vulgate Luke 1:36-39 Annuntiatio nativitatis Christi) was a Feast Day.  We wore our best clothes and went to mass to celebrate the day on which the Archangel Gabriel told Mary that she would give birth to Jesus, the long-awaited Saviour.

April Fools’ Day

However, we never associated April Fools’ Day with the Feast of the Annunciation.  When I saw that April Fools’ Day could be celebrated on March 25th, and that the Feast of the Annunciation was a precursor to April Fools’ Day, I was a little puzzled.

For members of my family, the Feast of the Annunciation was a Christian feast and April Fools’ Day, a lay feast, and both were celebrated.  April Fools’ Day was the day when you pinned a paper fish on the back of one of your siblings clothes. It was not easy.

All Saints’ Day

We also celebrated All Saints’ Day, la Toussaint, a feast that takes place on November 1st, but Halloween was not an important event.  Mother would not allow her children to go out in the dark and knock at people’s doors.  So Halloween was a family event.

Halloween

For us Halloween was the day on which we ate pumpkin pie and admired the light from the candle mother had placed in the pumpkin after she had emptied it out of its contents.  The pumpkin had eyes and a mouth.  Not only did mother bake pumpkin pie, but she also made orange and pumpkin marmalade.  My mother’s marmalade is the best I have ever tasted.

The Edict of Roussillon: New Years’ Day

As for the Edict of Roussillon, promulgated in 1574, we did not know about it.  For us, January 1st was the first day of the year.

,
(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

Eastern Orthodox icon of All Saints. Christ is enthroned in heaven surrounded by the ranks of angels and saints. At the bottom is Paradise with the bosom of Abraham (left), and the Good Thief (right). (Wikipedia)

The Good Thief to the right was crucified next to Jesus.

Marian Feast Days

There are four Marian Feast Days, all of which have been mentioned in early blogs:

  • the Annunciation (March 25th),
  • the Nativity (December 25th),
  • the Purification (December 8th) (Presentation of Jesus at the Temple),
  • the Assumption (August 15th).

Antiphons, the Hail Mary and the Magnificat

The links below each lead to Notre-Dame de Paris, as well as the text and a performance of the Marian Antiphons:

  • the Alma Redemptoris Mater
  • the Ave Regina Cælorum
  • the Regina Cœli
  • the Salve Regina

The Hail Mary, the Ave Maris Stella and the Magnificat are also part of the Marian hymnology.

Their story is told on the Notre-Dame de Paris site (in French or English).  Simply click on the links above (Hail Mary) and you will also hear the music.

* * *

Once again, we have evidence that ‘pagan’ feasts were replaced by Christian feasts and that feast days were determined by the Seasons and, more specifically, by the degree of day light compared to darkness, i.e. solstices and equinoxes.  It was a rather easy and sensible transition.

Ichthys

JS Bach (1685–1750): Magnificat in D-dur BWV 243, Nikolaus Harnoncourt,
cello & dir. (Chorus Viennensis Concertus musicus Wien, 1984)
(click on the title to hear the music)
____________________
If you click on Marian Antiphons you will find a site on Marian music, University of Dayton, Ohio:
http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/resources/music/mus_main.html
 

April 2, 2012

 

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Poisson d’avril, pesce d’aprile, April’s Fools Day & the Edict of Roussillon, 1574

01 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 30 Comments

Tags

April Fools Day, Charles IX of France, François Clouet, France, Henry IV of France, Margaret of Valois, Marguerite, St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

Charles IX of France, by François Clouet

A poisson d’avril is a hoax. It finds its origin in France and dates back to 1564.  Under the terms of the Edict of Roussillon, it was stipulated that henceforth, in France, the first day of the year would be January 1st and not April 1st (or March 25th). Charles IX was at Roussillon fleeing an epidemic of the plague, hence the name of the Edict, also called the Edict of Paris.  So, we are once again leaving behind the Julian calendar to adopt the Gregorian calendar.

Charles IX

Moreover, we are also looking once again at Charles IX (27 June 1550 – 30 May 1574) who promulgated the Edict when he was 14 years old.  He had become king when his brother François II died, at the age of 16, having reigned for a mere eighteen months. François II had been married, at the age of four, to six-year old Mary, future Queen of Scots.

Marguerite de Valois

Charles IX is the king whose mother, Catherine de’ Medici, manipulated into ordering the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre, which took place on 23 August 1572, six days after Marguerite de France, Dumas père’s Reine Margot and Charles IX’s sister, married, against her will. Henri III, the Huguenot King of Navarre who became Henri IV King of France and of Navarre, when Henri III of France died, in 1589.

The feast remained

As we have seen in the dating of Christian feasts, although renamed, the feast remained. On that day, an exchange of gifts became customary, except that people enjoyed giving foolish gifts to persons who were not aware of the fact that April 1st or March 25th no longer marked the beginning of a new year. Often a fish was given as the feast took place during Lent, a time of year when one did not eat meat. As well, the fish had been a symbol for early Christians.

Chaucer’s Canterury tales, 1392

It would appear however, that fools were celebrated long before January 1st became the first day of the year.  Again, we may have Chaucer to thank for this information.  In the Canterbury Tales (1392), the “Nun’s Priest’s Tale” is set Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two. The 32nd of March would be April 1st.

But Fools Feasts predate the Christian era. The moment one starts digging into the origins of Feasts, one lands in the Middle East or in India.

Terrible pranks have occurred on April 1st.  One is an invitation to see lions washed at the Tower of London on 1st April 1698. No lion was washed, but people took the invitation seriously.

          — Invitation to see lions washed

Alexandre Tharaud plays Eric Satie’s Première Gymnopédie

 
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