The Origin of April Fool's Day

 If you have ever wondered who the April Fool is and why he got his name ..or even how and why we celebrate his own special day....April Fool's Day.....this is his story.

The 'Fool' was born on April 1, 1582, in France. His name was Guy de Gowk. When he was born, everyone stared at him in absolute and utter amazement. "It must be a trick!" they exclaimed. "He looks quite the fool!"

It might have been his rakish grin, or perhaps the ear that was just not quite 'right'. He had the strangest little chicken legs...or perhaps they more closely resembled those of a turkey, as he also had a bit of a gobble. He always had a big grin on his face and loved to chortle with delight and glee. He had a strange penchant for bright objects and would stare at any and all of them for hours and hours.

His parents, hung strange objects above his crib...candelabras and pendants and flags and baubles to keep him entertained and in the process they created the first infant mobile. He loved his mobile dearly, and would reach up and grab them and hide them from his parents, then suddenly pull one of them out from behind his pillow and yellow 'cuckoo, cuckooo!' He roared with delight at his own cleverness, delighting his parents, as well.

Being so different and not ever really looking like his own parents or anyone else he knew, Guy grew up to be quite the loner but he also developed an understanding and appreciation for those that are different and often made the butt of other people's jokes. So, he turned the tables on those who teased him and played pranks on them, instead.

 He came to be much loved by the members of his little village. He was the prankster who was always trying to trick others into believing his jokes and his ridicules. He loved to spring out from the bushes and yell 'cuckoo, cuckoo' and throw old dead fishes upon passersby. He would laugh uproariously and they would get even...by later pinning caricatures of dead fish upon his own back when he wasn't looking. Thus, in great jesting and fun, they made him the 'poisson d'avril', or 'April fish' instead.

The townspeople continued to love and to care for him, but soon became tired of his constant pranks and sought to teach him a lesson. They decided to pull one big prank on him for a change. They planned a special day where the whole town would pull one practical joke, only this time the jokes would be on the little Guy. This event became known as 'hunting the gowk' or 'the cuckoo.' In France, it is known as 'Poisson d'Avril'....the April Fish...as the fish is the zodiac sign for April and the April fish is believed to be caught easily, as Guy most certainly was!

Once, the townspeople caught Guy de Gowk,they put up a 'kick me' sign on his back and pulled him through the town, dancing and yelling and carousing around him. They celebrated his catch for a full forty-eight hours, dressing him up in silly outfits and sending him on unusual and silly errands around the town.

In spite of all of the jokes and ridicule, Guy took it all in stride. He delighted in having his own special day and stayed in high spirits and light-heartedness. He knew in his heart that after a full year of pulling pranks on the townspeople, it was only fair that they got their day to trick him back. He liked playing the fool and he loved having a day celebrating silliness and fun in his honor. It became a tradition in this small town, to celebrate Guy's own special day every spring on the first day of April and became known as 'April Fool's Day'.

Others, hearing about all of the fun and hearing the laughter and merriment's for many miles, began to celebrate their own 'Guy de Gowk' or 'All Fool's Day.' It became an annual event, the time to officially welcome Spring, let go of Winter's cares and sadness and just truly enjoy life.

 

To this day, we continue to celebrate this tiny, odd little 'April Fool.' We may have forgotten his name, his origins or his peculiarities, but we still love the pranks, the merriment's and the fun of 'Guy de Gowk'...the little cuckoo.

©With Heart and Hands

Michele M. Bilyeu, Salem OR

"SPLAT!"

April Fool's !!!

My fly swatter block "Spat" with the  tiny 'legs up' bug was made for a liberated bug block challenge once issued by Tonya Riccuci of Word Play Quilts fame.


NOTE:

I'm not a creative writer for nothing! You would not believe how many blog readers I fooled by creating and posting this on April Fool's Day in 2007!

Yes, dear readers I made up this entire story!  

This is NOT how April Fool's Day began ;-)

I felt so badly for all of the comments for those that I fooled that I put it back into draft mode. But now ...hey!..you're all fair game again.

You may link to this post but not copy and post!
It took me a very long time to create this story!!!!

©With Heart and Hands

Michele M. Bilyeu, Salem OR

Linking Up with Nina Marie and her Off the Wall Fridays!  

Michele Bilyeu Creates With Heart and Hands as she shares her imaginative, magical, and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon. Creating, designing, sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting... from my heart and with my hands.

Bah Humbug! Friday the 13th

 When I woke up this morning and realized it was Friday the 13th, I very carefully removed all of the covers from around my feet before climbing out of bed. I made sure no cat was underfoot, no books or magazines or herbal teas cups littering the floor or nightstand... where I could trip over them, or knock them over.

And no, I don't suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia, rhe fear of Friday the 13th. I've just learned to be extra careful when I get out of the bed in the morning, walk and talk at the same time, or have hungry cats underfoot.

But for many, friggatriskaidekaphobiais is a genuine phobic fear and there are those who will literally stay home from work to avoid extra anxiety, the three Fridays a year that the 13th is likely to land on.

Frigga was the name of the Norse goddess for whom "Friday" is named and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen), or paraskevidekatriaphobia a concatenation (I just love that word!) of the Greek words Paraskeví, meaning Friday and dekatreís meaning thirteen.

A theory by author Charles Panati, one of the leading authorities on the subject of "Origins" maintains that the superstition can be traced back to ancient myth:

When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil — a gathering of thirteen — and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as "Witches' Sabbath."

I mean all I wanted to do was get out of bed safely and not break my foot as my friend June did when she climbed out of bed and got tangled in the bedsheets, or not end up needing knee surgery as my friend, Tonya Riccuci did right before she started the Bah Humbug! challenge. Or break a leg as my nephew did when he played ice hockey and got tackled by one of his own team members, or get his brand new hip joint popped out of its socket, as my brother did on 4 separate occasions. Or have to be life flighted off a cruise ship as my SIL did, or a kazillion other terrible accidents in the past year and a half. (note and insert...add Mrs. Goodneedle and Clare Worthy to the list of those attacked by accidentalitis this week..one in a ace bandage wrap and one in a lovely blue cast)

Well, let's face it, I went out to get my dad his morning newspaper last January and slipped on the worst black ice in Juneau's history and broke and dislocated my wrist so badly even the doctor said "this is bad, Michele...really bad." Boy, did that make me feel a lot better!

Uh, ok. So, we all need to be more careful even if it's not Friday the 13th, don't own black cats (as I always have) don't have ladders propped up all around your house (my husband is a home builder).

So, I come online to post about today...and of course...Blogger is out of commission and I can't post for hours and hours. So, I have to go out anyway, almost under a ladder, past several black cats, on Friday the 13th, and I survived....well for a couple of hours, anyway!

Phew! Maybe I can stop setting the timer on 11:11 and blowing on dandelion seeds and wishing on falling stars and saying Bless You! to myself every time I sneeze....well, no I still like that one.

So, for today...

An AAQI quilt..."Bah Humbug!" just registered for my May Quilt of the Month contribution and a potholder mailed before I went to Alaska for Tonya Riccuci...both for"getting well soon" after her surgery and saying Bah Humbug! to all of life's unruly challenges and all of our own fears.

Bah Humbug, Friday the 13th, knock on wood, cancel cancel, blow on the dandelion, 11:11 and of course....bless me and you!



Tonya Ricucci's Bah Humbug! Challenge

Michele Bilyeu quilts for AAQI..the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Won't you please join us? :)

What? Splat! A.D. and Angel

There are days when I shouldn't be allowed out of the house. I do believe that is why I spend so much time quilting and caretaking and so little time out in the 'real' world.

If I'm out in the real world for too long at a time, I began to more than wonder about myself. And I encourage others to wonder about me, too.

Yesterday, I headed out to check out five locations (for the third time) trying to find new eyeglasses. I have worn ones with a huge crack in them for an entire year. An entire year, folks. My once tiny crack is now a circle that fills the entire right lens. Obviously, I am not very vain and see my way around all obstacles.

Why would I go so long, you ask...because I don't get out in the real world much. I spent the first three months of the crackdown with a broken and dislocated wrist on an island in Alaska. I spent the next three months post surgery going back and forth to Alaska for a wedding, to rush to my mother's bedside, and then back again to my father's funeral. 2010 was not a very good year and I was too exhausted to care about seeing things clearly at that point. And besides, when I leave the house I break things, get lost, and end up in strange places with people staring at me. Oh, wait...that might be at my house!

Now, alot of that has to do with my lifelong obsession with severe sleep deprivation. I am pretty much an expert and expect to have scientists fight over my body for its research potential. And yes, I have done and tried everything. I said I was an expert, remember ;)

But until then, it is one Liberated Quilting Challenge after another, as I try to solve the puzzle of living, breathing, and creating One Little Quilt at a Time for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, mailing my donations in, and not getting lost driving downtown Salem. And we are not that big of a city.

Yesterday, I got What? and SPLAT ! as my own Bah Humbug! for Tonya Ricucci's UnRuly Quilting challenge, finally, finally into the mail. Where are the letters for Bah and the Humbug you ask? I left them on the sewing room floor...if I can't read them, who else is going to be able to? So, much for fabric design choices...too many lessons learned.

Now, I've always expected to see my face on the wall of all major airports. All you have to do is get behind me in the TSA line and you will learn why. But yesterday, I came close to having it also featured on America's Most Wanted... coming soon to a wall....in a Post Office near you.

Yesterday, of course, was a no mail holiday and I had mail to mail. So, I attempted the dreaded mailing machine. Half an hour later and a credit card that was twisted and turned in so many directions trying to find one the machine liked was one thing. But having to humbly ask for help from strangers on the sidewalk was another. So, yes..I was given a lot of quarters but it took a while to actually get some help.

Dang, I just hate it when a man fixes your problem in two seconds. We were both stymied by all of the jammed blue mail boxes, however.And I pushed, turned, shoved, and tried all four of them. Was yesterday April Fool's and nobody told me? The nice man...well, at this point he just said "Someone has apparently jammed them." Ah, yes..that's the kind of man I usually know ;)

I finally got my What? and my Splat! in the mail..along with another AAQI quilt, not shown here, and I made it through all 5 eyeglasses stores in only 6 hours and yes I bought the only glasses that were the right frame size and tall enough for old lady 61 year old eyes and their need to cram so many layers into one tiny lens and still let my quadruple astigmatisms correction that far exceeds both of my lens corrections still be close enough to my eye to not have me seeing triple starbursts every where I go. I can do that quite well on my own!

But I left the poor optician girl in a puddle on the floor laughing at me when my handbag got tangled so badly in my artistically looped around me scarf that I had to wear it under my nose for the whole eye exam. She thought my selecting glasses and going through the pre-exam was a hoot but the nice optician man...well, we're back to men, ladies. He never managed a smile..even when I mentioned that I really should have put silicone sealer in my optical windshield crack ;)

And you know those two pair of eyeglasses for $69 that you see on tv ads? Well, if you need anything more than plate glass windows it comes to $&#@* Lets just say between 4 and 5 times that. I tried really hard to be an angel, even though I was showing some of my usual signs of precursing A.D. and it definitely was a wipe the design table clean and start over kind of experience.

But oh well...I finally ordered one regular pair and one pair of sunglasses. And I know...I never get out much...but when the sun does shine in either Oregon or Alaska...it's enough to blind you since we're so used to seeing rain..and we tend to put on sunglasses whether we truly need them or not.

Oh, I am so glad yesterday is over...so much for my Bah Humbug! day!!! I managed to see my way around all obstacles once again...oh, wait...did I run over somebody's garbage can?

Yep, that's me...coming soon to a police station wall near you.

Michele Bilyeu quilts for AAQI..the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Won't you please join us? :) 

SPLAT !

Weapon of Mass Destruction: Bug Swatter
Final Dimension: 8"x 16" with added border patrol
Specifications: Red and Chartreuse
Objective: Elimination by Direct Force
Designer: Michele Bilyeu
Final Comments: Gulliver 1, Lilliputians 0

I Have Become an Unruly Humbug

I have officially become a humbug. A humbug as in 'bah humbug!'


A humbug is a liberated quilter who seeks to use her free piecing abilities in the creation of bahs, humbugs, and !'s.

As Tonya proclaimed in her blog "The Unruly Quilter" today, she needs free pieced letter blocks with the words "Bah Humbug!" that we will contribute to....as a group challenge quilt. She even made a special UnRuly Quilting blog, just for us humbuggers, and I signed up.

I thought, well maybe I could make a bah, or perhaps a humbug....but then she wrote...

"You can make the font fabulous and intricate, or simple and straightforward.One option: incorporate insect fabric into the letters. I can easily see a bug peering out of the middle of the letter a or the point on the exclamation point....Challenge yourself. You can make the words buggy. What would a "bug" font look like? Would it be made of antennae and creepy legs, maybe a wing or two? ......Have you seen the alphabets done using people forming each letter? you know, they hold up their arms up and out a bit and you have a Y. What would it look like with humbugs forming the letters? Can you piece the word HUM so that it looks like a bug?"

I knew then that I was in trouble. Deep, deep, bah humbug! kind of trouble.

Piece letters that look like bugs playing YMCA across a quilt block?
I don't think so!

Piece words into blocks that are less than banner sized and you can see still see them clearly?
I don't think so!

Piece bah, piece humbug, piece the...
oh heck.

I made the !


I know, even Willow thinks it is shooting out fireworks. And if I it doesn't play nicely with bah or humbug, I can use it for a sparkler.

In fact, if I turn it upside down, I can use in a ceremony and sing 'light a little candle.'

Yep, its got a bit of a jolly .and a hint of the holly. and it's expressive, and it keeps Willow happy.

Bah Humbug? I'll just settle for putting the ! into my season for now.

Thanks for letting me into the secret Bah Humbug! Society, Tonya.
I guess I'm a bigger Scrooge than I thought!

grumble, mumble, bumble, fumble, grumble...


This is my assistant...signal flagging for help....

Ok humbuggers!
I've set the bar..it's nowhere but up from here!

I'll be really, really liberated and try a #$% next ;)