It's a Jolly Holiday in April! Quiz

Answer: April Fools' Day

Where did this day of pranks and fools' errands come from? The Romans celebrated New Years' Day on or around April 1, a practice which continued among Christians in Europe. Then in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decreed a new calendar which, among other changes, began the year on January 1. France adopted it right away, but traditionalists who stuck with April 1 were ridiculed and tricked. This legend does not explain, however, why countries like England, which did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752, had nonetheless celebrated April Fools' Day with gusto for quite some time before. The French historically called it Poisson d'Avril and children would tape a fish on people's back.

There were some cat-related pranks in cyberspace on April Fools' Day 2013, too. Contactually, a service for organizing contacts, swapped all the pictures of users' contacts with photos of cats. The video-hosting website Vimeo changed its name to Vimeow and announced a slate of new feline-related features in a blog post signed by its new "Pawsident".

Answer: Hans Christian Andersen

Since 1967, the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) has sponsored International Children's Book Day. Activities include writing contests, book awards, and meetings with kid-lit authors. IBBY, founded in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1953, has formal status with UNESCO and UNICEF and national chapters in many countries. IBBY has brought books to Palestinian children in Lebanese relief camps, trained librarians in Burkina Faso, and offered writing and illustration workshops in Mexico, Zambia, Indonesia, and all over the world to encourage local production of books for children.

Danish author Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) never married, and in his later years he developed chronic bronchitis and then liver cancer. One morning his friends discovered his lifeless body in bed; he was clutching a farewell letter written 45 years earlier by the only woman he had ever loved.

Answer: Jamaica - making voodoo dolls and building fires

In Jamaica the tradition is to eat spiced raisin buns and cheese. Bermudans eat hot cross buns, Easter eggs, and fish cakes, and they fly kites to symbolize Christ's ascent into Heaven (even though the Feast of Ascension occurs forty days after Easter).

In Norway, the custom of reading, listening to, or watching mystery stories began in the 1920s. On Easter, Norwegian TV stations broadcast mystery specials, milk companies print detective stories on their cartons, and book publishers release their Påskekrim, or Easter Thrillers.

Not only in Sweden, but also in Denmark and Finland, Easter festvities blend Orthodox Christian traditions with Scandinavian pagan customs that sound like Halloween to Americans and other people who recognize that holiday. Small children dressed as witches walk door-to-door and trade pussy willows for candy; they also eat colored Easter eggs.

Answer: True

Easter Monday in Hungary is called Watering Monday (Locsoló Hétfő). In the Ukraine it is Dousing Monday (Oblyvanyi Ponedilok). In Poland on Wet Monday (Śmigus-Dyngus), boys throw water on girls and spank them with pussy willow , branches, but the girls get to turn the tables on Easter Tuesday.

In the Czech Republic and in Slovakia men spank women in the morning, especially women they know well or like, but the ladies get their revenge by throwing water on any man in the afternoon.

Answer: Both of these

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising occured the 14th of Nisan (April 19 on the Gregorian calendar), thirteen days before Yom Hashoah. In 1953, Yom Hashoah was declared to be on the 27th of Nisan because the 14th of Nisan is the day before Passover (Pesach). Since 1961, all public entertainment is closed in Israel on Yom Hashoah. A horn is sounded at 10 am, when drivers must stop their cars, and everyone must stand at attention for two minutes.

Some Orthodox Jews, including Hasidim, have objected to Yom Hashoah because it occurs during the month of Nisan which is supposed to be a month of joyous celebration; they believe Holocaust remembrance should occur on traditional days of mourning in Judaism, such as Tisha B'Av in the summertime.

Israeli Independence Day (Yom Ha'atzmaut) is celebrated eight days after Yom Hashoah on the 5th of Iyar on the Jewish calendar (April or May). It is the date that prime minister David Ben-Gurion read the Israeli Declaration of Independence (May 14, 1948). It is marked by an International Bible contest in Jerusalem and families hold mangal, or barbecues. Flags adorn balconies, cars, and just about anything else.

Answer: World Health Organization (WHO)

The World Health Organization is a UN agency headquartered in Geneva and devoted to public health. WHO focuses on communicable diseases, mental diseases, and diseases of lifestyle (STDs, addiction) as well as food safety and access. World Health Day commemorates the day the constitution was formally ratified, April 7, 1948. It is also a day during which WHO draws attention to a specific health issue each year through international, regional, and local events.

Some past themes:
2013 - "Healthy Heart Beat, Healthy Blood Pressure"
2012 - "Good Health Adds Life to Years." (aging and health)
2009 - "Save Lives. Make Hospitals Safe in Emergencies."
2006 - "Working Together for Health" (chronic shortages of health workers)

Answer: Yuri Gagarin

All of the other choices were cosmonauts in the early space program of the USSR, which had designated April 12 as a public holiday, Cosmonautics Day, for decades before the UN proclamation. In Russia and in many former Soviet republics, commemorative stamps are issued, and there are events relating to technology and the future including expositions, exhibits, and lectures.

The traditional main event is a procession that begins in the city of Korolyov near the statue of Gagarin. Participants then head to Red Square to visit Gagarin's grave in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

Then they proceed to Cosmonauts Alley, a pedestrian-only walkway featuring busts of cosmonauts, and to the Monument to the Conquerors of Space, a statue of a rocket rising on its contrail.

Answer: The Thai New Year

The most important festivity of Songkran is the throwing of water upon others, sometimes with squirt guns and sometimes with buckets and sometimes with garden hoses! Some Thais also smear a mixture of colored talc and menthol on passersby for good luck. The festivities have become so rowdy that many cities cordon off areas and search entrants for contraband (drugs, glass, weapons). Although the holiday is primarily secular now, traditionalists will visit a wat (a Buddhist monastery) to pray and donate food to the monks, and they will clean household images of Buddha with perfumed water.

The word Songkran derives from the Sanskrit word saṃkrānti, meaning "astrological passage" or "a move or change". Although originally a floating date determined through astrological calculation, it is now fixed in Thailand on the Gregorian calendar. It falls near the New Year as calculated on lunisolar calendar used may many Southeast Asian cultures.

Answer: Earth Day

The fixing of the date of Earth Day is an example of how the organization of a private group has superseded the United Nations in terms of adoption and acceptance of a worldwide holiday. Secretary General U Thant had proclaimed March 21 as Earth Day in 1970. A month later, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson held an environmental teach-in on April 22 and called it Earth Day. It was originally an event that occurred every ten years, but Nelson and man named Denis Hayes organized a network that turned Earth Day into an international event in 1990, and it has been that way ever since.

Nelson by the way, chose April 22 because it fell between American college students' Spring Break and Final Exams. Coincidentally, April 22, 1970, was the centennial of Vladimir Lenin's birthday, and a national holiday in the USSR. This concurrence led some critics, including the Daughters of the American Revolution, to label Earth Day a Communist plot, and it prompted the FBI to investigate.

Answer: Japan

April 29 is the birthday of the Shōwa Emperor Hirohito (1901-1989). During his reign (from 1926 until his death), Taishō Democracy ended, and Japan entered World War II and suffered nuclear bombing of two large cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not to mention occupation.

After Hirohito died, the day was renamed from The Emperor's Birthday to Greenery Day, a day for the appreciation of nature, so as to acknowledge the Emperor's love of plants without mentioning his name. Greenery Day moved to May 4, however, and April 29 was renamed Shōwa Day to make the purpose of the day explicit once more.

Answer: Yes

The program began in 1993, and is among the many projects of the non-profit organization, including programs to end violence against women and to promote women's health. The Ms. Foundation and "Ms. Magazine" have not been formally connected since 1987.

In 2003, the program was officially expanded to included boys. The Ms. Foundation was initially opposed to this, because they created the program specifically to address self-esteem and social issues unique to girls. Even before the official change, however, many workplaces had already permitted both girls and boys to participate. As an alternative to including boys, since there is no prejudice against males working outside the home, author Robert Bly had suggested a Take Our Sons to the Library day. Just as women have been shut out of the public sphere, Bly wrote in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "I think it's just as likely now that men will be shut out of the inward world, the literature world."

Answer: St. George

St. George is the patron saint of England, not to mention farmers and farm laborers, saddle makers, horses, sheep, and Teutonic Knights. Some Church of England officials have argued that as St. George really had very little to do with England, he should be replaced as patron saint someone like Edmund the Martyr, King East Anglia, or Saint Alban, the first British Christian martyr.

Although celebrations waned during the 18th century after England and Scotland united, they picked up again during the 20th century, thanks to the efforts of organizations like English Heritage and the Royal Society of Saint George. Typical events include Morris Dancing, Punch and Judy puppet shows, falconry displays, and Mummers Plays, which are folk plays performed in the street or at pubs. The Cross of St. George may be flown or displayed in floral arrangements. Other customs include wearing a rose in one's lapel, eating traditional English foods for afternoon tea, roasting a hog, and singing "Jerusalem" in church.

Answer: South Africa - 27 April 1994

The Statute of Westminster effectively granted South Africa independence from the UK on December 11, 1931. But the big national holiday is Freedom Day, which commemorates the first elections held in South Africa after the abolition of apartheid, a system of oppressive racial laws, on April 27, 1994. Nelson Mandela became the first Black president of South Africa in a peaceful transition from the old government to the new. April 27 is a South African public holiday filled with observances both solemn and joyful.

Answer: First World War

On April 25, 1915, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landed at the Gallipoli peninsula in Thrace (now Turkey). Led by Atatürk, the army of the Ottoman Empire defended the region fiercely, and the campaign failed, and many ANZAC soldiers died.

In memory of the sacrifice, Eight Hour Day (South Australia's Labour Day, observed October 13) was renamed Anzac Day in 1915. By 1916, the whole of Australia and New Zealand had designated April 25 as Anzac Day. Since the 1930s, Anzac Day begins with a dawn vigil, followed by parades, memorial services, and reunions. Families also play Two-Up, a game in which participants bet on the outcome of a double coin toss. Even Turkey began recognizing Anzac Day in 1934, and in 1985 renamed a small cove on the Gallipoli peninsula Anzac Cove (Anzak Koyu).

Answer: Yes

Julius Sterling Morton founded Arbor Day in Nebraska City, Nebraska, in 1872, when a million trees were planted in 24 hours! In 1906, U.S. Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot urged President Teddy Roosevelt to speak in public schools about forestry and conservation. The next year, Roosevelt issued an "Arbor Day Proclamation to the School Children of the United States". By the 1920s, most states had passed laws observing Arbor Day. The day became national by presidential proclamation in 1970. Only in Nebraska, however, is it a civic holiday (government offices closed).

Many states still set their own Arbor Days based on their growing season. For example, Kentucky's Arbor Day is the first Friday in April, and New Mexico's is the second Friday in March, whereas sunny Florida's is the third Friday in January! Likewise, different countries have their equivalent on different days. Sri Lanka's National Tree Planting Day is October 15. In Australia, National Tree Day is the last Sunday in July. In Brazil, El Día de Árvore falls on September 21. Some variants are a week long, such as the Greening Week of Japan, and the National Festival of Tree Planting in India.