TODAY is April 1, which for millions of people means a day filled with pranks, jokes and mistruths designed to pull the wool over the eyes of family and friends.
It is of course, April Fools’ Day, an annual celebration of tomfoolery that is enjoyed in many countries in the West, including the UK, US, France and Germany.
The tradition, however, has failed to gain traction in Spanish-speaking countries, including Spain.
Here, the day for jokes and pranks is actually El Dia de Los Santos Inocentes (Day of the Holy Innocents), which falls each year on December 28.
The same is true in Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico and Venezuela, where pranks played on the day are known as inocentadas.
The Catholic Church has observed the Feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28 since the sixth century, marking the Massacre of the Innocents from the Gospel of Matthew.
The scripture tells of how King Herod ordered all male children aged under two in Bethlehem to be killed.
Herod, a Jewish king, hoped that among the slaughtered infants would be Jesus, who had been declared ‘King of the Jews’ following his immaculate conception, and who he therefore saw as a threat to his rule.
In a bid to protect their children, parents ‘had to resort to trickery to keep them out of the clutches of Herod’s men’, according to history buffs at Barcelona City Council.
This is where the tradition of playing tricks on December 28 is said to have derived from.
