Eggs, Flowers, Falls, and Showers

Today is April 1^st. So once again, a new month begins, and this time, a new quarter of the year begins. So the second quarter of 2026 begins today, as the second quarter of the 21^st century began three months ago. As I previously said, there wouldn’t be too many entries about each month, but April is a diamond in the rough.

So what is April about? As you may have seen in the 2026 Calendar, it has the following holidays:

• April Fool’s Day
• Passover (usually)
• Good Friday (usually)
• Easter (usually)
• Earth Day

This year, here are some other things going on that are unusual or not something you see every year:

• Once again, the month begins on Full Moon. It’s both April Fool’s and Full Moon at the same time.
• This year is one of these years when Passover lands on Maundy Thursday, the day of the Last Supper. In fact, for the next few days before Easter, we have Passover, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
• Easter lands on April 5^th. Not a surprising occurrence, but the last year Easter was on April 5^th was 2015, which was coincidentally the last year to have three Friday the 13ths. Last year, it landed on April 20^th, just like in 2014.
• A similar holiday less known than Earth Day, Arbor Day (the day of tree planting), occurs during the New Moon phase, the second time in an even month where New Moon and another holiday are one in the same. Trees need the sun to grow, not the moon.

As for anniversaries, let’s take a look back in five-year increments for April events. As the year is 2026, we are aligned with all years ending with a 1 or 6.

• 5 years ago, the death toll for COVID-19 exceeded 3 million deaths for the first time.
• 10 years ago, the Presidential Election essentially became about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton after Ted Cruz was locked out of winning the GOP nomination.
• 15 years ago, the PlayStation Network got hacked, stealing 77 million accounts.
• 20 years ago, Daylight Savings Time began in April for the last time in the US.
• 25 years ago, Animal Crossing was born.
• 30 years ago, Major League Soccer began.
• 35 years ago, the United Nations declared that Iraq was to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction.
• 40 years ago, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded.

What April is about:

April is the fourth month of the year, and the first to have 30 days. It’s a spring month in the Northern Hemisphere, and a fall month in the Southern Hemisphere. From the 1^st to the 19^th, the astrological sign is Aires. From the 20^th to the 30^th, the astrological sign is Taurus. The birthstone is the diamond, the most valuable gemstone. But what else is April about?

April Fools:

Today is April 1^st, meaning that it’s April Fools, a day you pull pranks on people or lie about something. Some places do April Fool’s pranks really well, others do not. For example, as a member of the Bell Tree Forums, I can remember when we were bound to have another Bell Boom Week, where you can earn more Bells, and one feature is that you can steal other members’ forum currency. But the next day, the event was a lie, meaning that we didn’t have a Bell Boom Week after all. A couple years later, they had an event where the site went back to its old design, while adding a feature where you can react to other members’ posts with rewinding or fast forwarding reacts. The reactions also have effect on the user’s join dates and avatar foregrounds, like anyone who joined after April 2024 will have a binky on their avatar. When I participated in the event, my join date got rewinded significantly, sending me back to the 1980’s, and then ending on September 25^th, 1979 (which is not only before most of the internet, let alone, Animal Crossing and its fansites, existed, but also before I was born). My actual join date was September 9^th, 2014.

You probably have expected that I would pull an April Fools prank on you guys today. Actually, I would not. While I may enjoy telling April Fools jokes, I’m not going to do this as part of the 365-day blog.

Easter:

More often than not, for as long as Ash Wednesday lands on Valentine’s Day or later, Easter will land in April. And this year is one of the years Easter is observed in April. After all, Easter is April’s signature holiday.

The most important part about Easter is that it’s about the Resurrection of Jesus. The whole week before Easter, like this week, reflect the events of Christ’s last days before his crucifixion. After he died, he went to Hell, freed everyone who followed him, and took them to Heaven. Then he rose back from the dead.

The modern holiday, however, associates it with egg hunting. On the night before Easter, the Easter Bunny comes and hides eggs all over the house, while also leaving a trail of jelly beans. The kids have their baskets, where they can use to hunt Easter Eggs, while also having some fun gifts. What’s even more amazing is that the eggs can hold candy inside them.

Earth Day:

If Easter doesn’t land in April, and April Fool’s Day is not worth celebrating, Earth Day would probably be the most important holiday to land in April. In fact, if I can pick two holidays from each season that I would let stand out the most for the season, I would choose both Easter and Earth Day.

The environment remains to be a big issue today. With global warming getting worse, fossil fuels running out, trash polluting the Earth, and air becoming too dirty, it has became a serious subject.

Wars and Natural Disasters:

Throughout America’s entire history, they fought in many wars. Four of the biggest ones were the Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Two of these wars began in the month of April. On April 19^th, 1775, the Revolutionary War began. After the heavy taxation without representation on the colonists, the colonists fighting back, and the Intolerable Acts, the colonists had it with King George III and fought for independence. By then, they became an independent nation. For the Civil War, although the start date was April 12^th, 1861, April 13^th was the day the Civil War really began. April 12^th was the Battle of Fort Sumter, the final battle before the Civil War started.

April wasn’t just the month of the American Civil War and the Revolutionary War starting up. In the Midwest and the South, the busiest months for tornadoes are March, April, May, and June, with April being one of the worst months for F5 tornadoes. But the biggest natural disaster to hit the United States in April wasn’t even a tornado, but rather an earthquake. On April 18^th, 1906, a devastating earthquake hits San Francisco, also starting a fire that burned for days.

Spring:

April is one of the four core months of the year, and it’s the core month of Spring. By the time it starts up, all of the snow and ice would have melted, and trees start having more leaves. There’s more rain, more flowers, more gardening, and more leaves. You can also feel the spring breeze in April. And if you think of the holiday of Easter, it’s always going to be set in the Spring. And most dates Easter can land on are in April.

Of course, the bad parts of Spring are present in April too. Along with tornadoes, there’s also allergies, pollen, and bees. And even though the winter is over, cold air tries to linger in the US during the Spring. Snow days can occur as late as in April.