This last weekend of March is going to be historic, the coincidences of the calendar make this event extremely rare.
There are some weekends during the year that are much busier than others. The one that arrives, March 30 and 31, will even be historic in view of all the events that occur at the same time. While spring has begun, Easter is approaching. This Sunday, March 31, the religious festival is already making its return. It commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ for Christians and takes place on the Sunday following the full moon which comes after the equinox, the date when the length of the day is equal to that of the night. The children will then be able to have fun on Sunday, but also on Easter Monday, looking for eggs. It will also be an opportunity for families to come together.
Easter won’t be the only source of fun during this three-day weekend. If Easter Sunday falls on March 31, Monday will indeed be April 1. This is obviously the joke day par excellence. Tradition has it that children stick drawn fish on each other’s backs without the target person realizing it. We have to go back to 1564 to understand the origins of April 1st. In the 16th century, in France, Charles IX ended the Julian calendar and switched to the Georgian, making the year start on January 1 whereas it previously began in April. People then gave each other gifts to celebrate the New Year. Some resisted and therefore continued to exchange gifts which gradually became little pranks.
This date also corresponds to the end of Lent, a period during which Christians were not to eat meat. So they treated themselves to fish, which could explain the shift towards “April Fools”. Another hypothesis evokes the fishing period. The fishermen were deprived of practice in the spring so that the marine fauna could develop; fake fish were then given to them to console them or, conversely, provoke them.
Be careful, that’s not all. You will also have to watch your watch. The changeover to summer time will also take place this weekend. It will take place on the night of Saturday March 30 to Sunday March 31. At two in the morning, it will already be three o’clock. An hour of sleep will be lost but an hour of sunshine will be regained. The time change takes place twice a year: in spring, it is always the last Sunday of March and in winter it falls at the end of October. Imagine that the conjunction between the time change, Easter and April 1st is very rare: the last time it happened in 2013, the previous time in 2002… and the next time will take place in more than 20 years !