Do you know where the tradition of joking and deceiving each other on April 1st came from? To find out the origin of this tradition, we have to plunge into the distant past. The history of the Slavs has deep pagan roots, and we observe their echoes almost every day in our modern world. It turns out that on the first of April, our old ancestors celebrated one very interesting holiday. But first things first!
April 1 - an old Slavic holiday
It was not a holiday, but rather the turn of the seasons. It was on the first day of April that the brownie woke up after a long hibernation. Like a bear! Our ancient ancestors believed that in winter, this good spirit goes into hibernation, however, sometimes it wakes up to do important housework. This kind spirit slept exactly before the arrival of warmth, when spring fully entered into its full rights. Let us note right away that for our ancestors, spring did not come on the first of March, but exactly one month later.
To be more precise, the end of winter was marked by the day of the spring equinox (March 21), and the next few days, until the first Saturday in April, the Slavs met spring. Finally, spring came into its own on April 1, and on this day the main ghost-keeper of the hearth, the brownie, woke up. The brownie would wake up and start cleaning up the house.
We all know well that after a long and sweet sleep, waking up at the call of an alarm clock, parents or spouse, we do not feel very well. We yawn and feel an eerie discontent about having to get out of a warm bed. And small children generally cry and are capricious.
The brownie has the same habits as a small child. After a long and sweet sleep, he also wakes up with no particular pleasure. And since he is in a bad mood, he begins to harm. Either he scatters the food in the kitchen, then he pulls the dog by the tail, or the cattle scares …
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Therefore, our ancient ancestors tried with all their might to please the dissatisfied spirit: sweet porridge, milk and bread. But for bread, we also need spectacles! The spectacles were funny jokes, practical jokes and laughter. The whole day, April 1, people laughed and had fun. To all this, the ancient Slavs wore clothes inside out, socks of different colors, and they always tried to deceive each other so that a good spirit would forget that he was awakened.
Gradually, they forgot about cajoling the brownie, but the good old tradition of having fun and playing each other is popular to this day!
