This year, Easter and April first are on the same day, making Easter also April Fools' Day. What better way to celebrate both holidays than by combining the two? Here are some Easter-specific April Fools' Day prank ideas (with pictures) that you can plot to pull on your family and friends.
The next time that Easter and April Fools' land on the same day won't be until 2029.
Easter and April Fools' Day are both ancient holidays steeped in pagan customs. April Fools' Day derives from the ancient Roman religious festival Hilaria, which was celebrated on the spring equinox. In 2018, the spring equinox occurred on March 20.
The spring equinox is one of the four seasonal astronomical events that affect the earth. The others include the summer solstice, the autumnal equinox, and the winter solstice. During Hilaria, Romans honored Cybele, an Anatolian mother goddess mother adopted into the Roman pantheon of gods via Greece. Cybele also had a son/lover named Attis, who committed suicide by castrating himself before a forced marriage to someone else. To honor Attis' life, Cybele made it so his corpse would never decay. Every spring, Attis would be "reborn" with the spring vegetation. To celebrate Attis, "participants would dress in disguise at the event at the end of March," writes The Telegraph.
Hilaria is where we derive the word “hilarious."
Similar themes can be seen in the Bible with Jesus Christ and the story of his resurrection. A lot of other ancient gods and goddesses also have a similar springtime resurrection story, including Baal, Melqart, Adonis, Tammuz, Dionysus, Ishtar, Persephone, and Bari.
So celebrate the old with the new with this rare occasion of a "hilarious" Easter with these fun and inspired prank ideas.
Easter Inspired April Fools' Day Prank Ideas for 2018:
(Imgur)
(Imgur)
