April Fools' Day 😲 No Idea How it Started

🤡 No Kidding 🤡

We Have No Idea

How April Fools' Day Started

By Ashley Ross

The what of April Fools’ Day is pretty clear: in the U.S. at least, April 1st will be a time for pranks—for better or for worse. 

But the why is a mystery. 

Though many holidays have cloudy origins, the history of April Fools’ Day is particularly blurry, as there are several competing claims for the invention. Some see the holiday’s sources in a storybook, while others consider it an evolution of the general rejoicing of springtime.

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One possible precedent is in the Greco-Roman festival called Hilaria, which was celebrated on March 25. The festival honored Cybele, an ancient Greek Mother of Gods, and its celebrations included parades, masquerades and jokes to celebrate the first day after the vernal equinox.

“Traditionally, the vernal equinox was thought of as the beginning of the year in the Julian calendar,” notes Simon J. Bronner, a professor of American Studies and Folklore at Penn State.

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In the 16th century, the Christian world switched from the Julian calendar, which was introduced by Julius Caesar, to the Gregorian calendar named for Pope Gregory XIII. The change moved the New Year up to January 1. Some historians find another origin for April Fools in that switch, as those still using the Julian calendar were fooled by the new date. Meanwhile, others insist that the tradition of an April’s new year celebration simply evolved into a jocular time, which is how the pranks began.

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Another origin story, which Bronner says is very controversial, is rooted in Geoffrey Chaucher’s 1392 book The Canterbury Tales.

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“The controversy is over what Chaucer really wrote and whether there can be a direct link to April Fools’ Day,” he explains. “The line in question is ’32 March,’ which was thought to be a joke because there is no March 32, but there are some medievalists who claim it was a misprint.

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One idea about the holiday that’s not really a possibility is that it’s universal. While various cultures around the world do have celebrations around the same time, like the Hindu holiday Holi and the Jewish holiday Purim, the prank-centric nature of April Fools’ Day is particular to Europe and North America, Bronner says.

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To Bronner, it’s interesting that the celebrations have taken such hold on culture, considering their murky origins.

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“When I talk to students in folklore class,” he says, “[I tell them] that it seems to be part of a more general pattern of spring being a time of hilarity.”

http://time.com/4276140/april-fools-day-history

               

Easter 🌼International

Happy Easter🐣in🌎Many🌍Languages🌏

Happy Easter
🐣 in 🐥
Many Languages

Καλο Πασχα

🌷🐇🐣🐤🌷🐣🐰🐥 Happy Easter 🌷🐇🐣🐤🌷🐣🐰🐥

Afrikaans   geseënde Paasfees
Albanian   gëzuar Pashkët
Arabic   فِصْح سعيد

Basque   ondo izan Bazko garaian
Breton   Pask Seder
Bulgarian   честит Великден

Chinese (Cantonese)   復活節快樂　
Chinese (Mandarin)   復活節快樂　
Catalan   bona Pasqua
Cornish   Pask Lowen
Croatian   Sretan Uskrs
Czech   Veselé Velikonoce

Danish   God Påske
Dutch   Vrolijk Pasen / Zalige paasdagen

Esperanto  Feliĉan Paskon
Estonian  Häid lihavõttepühi

Finnish  hyvää pääsiäistä
Flemish  zalig Pasen
French  Joyeuses Pâques

Gaelic (Irish)   Cáisc Shona Dhuit/Dhaoibh
Beannachtaí na Cásca
Gaelic   (Manx) Caisht sonney dhyt
Gaelic   (Scottish) a' Chàisg sona
Galician   boas Pascuas
German   frohe Ostern
Greek   Καλό Πάσχα

Hebrew   חג פסחא שמח
Hindi   īsṭar maṅgalamay ho
Hungarian   kellemes Húsvéti Ünnepeket

Icelandic   gledilega paska
Indonesian   Selamat Paskah
Italian   buona Pasqua

 

Japanese   イースターおめでとう
Korean   행복한 부활절이 되시길

Latin   prospera Pascha sit
Latvian   priecīgas Lieldienas
Lithuanian   su Šventom Velykom
Maltese   L-Għid it-tajjeb
Norwegian   god påske
 
Persian/Farsi   عيد پاک مبارک
Polish   Wesołych Świąt Wielkanocnych
Portuguese   Feliz Páscoa
Punjabi   īsṭar khuśyāṅvālā hove
Romanian   Paşte fericit
Russian   с праздником Пасхи
 
Serbian   срећан Ускрс
Sicilian   bona Pasqua
Slovak   milostiplné prežitie Veľkonočných sviatkov
Slovenian   Vesele velikonočne praznike
Spanish   felices Pascuas

Swahili   heri kwa sikukuu ya Pasaka
Swedish   glad Påsk
Tagalog   maligayang pasko ng pagkabuhay
Thai   สุขสันต์วันอีสเตอร์
Turkish   paskalya bayramınız kutlu olsun

Ukranian   З Великодніми святами

Volapük lesustanazäli yofik

Welsh   Pasg Hapus

Yoruba   Eku odun ajinde

🌎 🌍 🌏

🥀 👇 🐣 👇 🌷

https://youtu.be/WJfRH5ipPt0

Easter Treats 🍰 Around The World

Easter Treats

Around The World

👇 🎥 👇

Unique Easter Dishes

From Around the World
👇 🎥 👇

Easter Eggs 🥚 Tradition 🐣 Beyond Ishtar

Beyond Ishtar:

The Tradition of Eggs at Easter

Don’t believe every meme you encounter.

Scientific American Krystal D’Costa

Eggs occupy a special status during Easter observances. They're symbols of rebirth and renewal—life bursts forth from this otherwise plain, inanimate object that gives no hint as to what it contains. In this regard it is a handy symbol for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but it is is a symbol that has held this meaning long before Christianity adopted it.

 

There is a meme that some people have rallied around and shared as a "truth" of Easter. It proclaims:

Easter was originally the celebration of Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Her symbols (like the egg and bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols (or did you actually think eggs and bunnies had anything to do with the resurrection?) After Constantine decided to Christianize the Empire, Easter was changed to represent Jesus. But at its roots, Easter (which is how you pronounce Ishtar) is all about celebrating fertility and sex. 

Clearly, we all know that memes are the ultimate source of information—particularly when they makes a biting point about something or some group that is not particularly favorably viewed. But it is well known that under the Roman Empire, Christianity did indeed adopt the pagan rituals of conquered peoples in an effort to help convert them. It worked pretty well as a strategy as it allowed the conquered peoples to continue a semblance of their observances as they remembered, and with time the population would be replaced with those who only knew the new traditions. This is not a secret. However, there are a few things wrong with the Ishtar meme that a simple Google search will turn up:

• Ishtar was the goddess of love and war and sex, as well as protection, fate, childbirth, marriage, and storms—there's some fertility in there, but as with Aphrodite, there is also an element of power. Her cult practiced sacred prostitution, where women waited at a temple and had sex with a stranger in exchange for a divine blessing (and money to feed hungry children or pay a debt).
• Ishtar's symbols were the lion, the morning star, and eight or sixteen pointed stars—again, symbols of power.
• The word Easter does not appear to be derived from Ishtar, but from the German Eostre, the goddess of the dawn—a bringer of light. English and German are in the minority of languages that use a form of the word Easter to mark the holiday. Elsewhere, the observance is framed in Latin pascha, which in turn is derived from the Hebrew pesach, meaning of or associated with Passover. Ishtar and Easter appear to be homophones: they may be pronounced similarly, but have different meanings.

Our helpful meme places the egg in Ishtar's domain, but Ishtar doesn't seem to be connected to eggs in any explicit way. However, there are plenty of other older traditions that involve the egg as a symbol of rebirth and feature it prominently in creation mythologies:

• Ancient Egyptians believed in a primeval egg from which the sun god hatched. Alternatively, the sun was sometimes discussed as an egg itself, laid daily by the celestial goose, Seb, the god of the earth. The Phoenix is said to have emerged from this egg. The egg is also discussed in terms of a world egg, molded by Khnum from a lump of clay on his potter's wheel (1).
• Hinduism makes a connection between the content of the egg and the structure of the universe: for example, the shell represents the heavens, the white the air, and the yolk the earth. The Chandogya Upanishads describes the act of creation in terms of the breaking of an egg:

The Sun is Brahma—this is the teaching. A further explanation thereof (is as follows). In the beginning this world was merely non-being. It was existent. It developed. It turned into an egg. It lay for the period of a year. It was split asunder. One of the two egg-shell parts became silver, one gold. That which was of silver is this earth. That which was of gold is the sky … Now what was born therefrom is yonder sun (1).

• In the Zoroastrian religion, the creation myth tells of an ongoing struggle between the principles of good and evil. During a lengthy truce of several thousand years, evil hurls himself into an abyss and good lays an egg, which represents the universe with the earth suspended from the vault of the sky at the midway point between where good and evil reside. Evil pierces the egg and returns to earth, and the two forces continue their battle (2).
• In Findland, Luonnotar, the Daughter of Nature floats on the waters of the sea, minding her own business when an eagle arrives, builds a nest on her knee, and lays several eggs. After a few days, the eggs begin to burn and Luonnotar jerks her knee away, causing the eggs to fall and break. The pieces form the world as we know it: the upper halves form the skies, the lower the earth, the yolks become the sun, and the whites become the moon (3).
• In China, there are several legends that hold a cosmic egg at their center, including the idea that the first being or certain people were born of eggs. For example, the Palangs trace their ancestry to a Naga princess who laid three eggs, and the Chin will not kill the king crow because it laid the original Chin egg from which they emerged (3).

The Sun God, Ra with an egg-shaped disk over his head. Public domain.
These are some of the stories that build the foundation for the tradition of eggs at Easter. Contrary to the assertion of our meme, eggs and bunnies actually do have something to do with the idea of resurrection: in these early stories, the creator often emerged from the egg itself in some form: 
The cosmic egg, according to the Vedic writings, has a spirit living within it which will be born, die, and be born yet again. Certain versions of the complicated Hindu mythology describe Prajapati as forming the egg and then appearing out of it himself. Brahma does likewise, and we find parallels in the ancient legends of Thoth and Ra. Egyptian pictures of Osiris, the resurrected corn god, show him returning to life once again rising up from the shell of a broken egg. The ancient legend of the Phoenix is similar. This beautiful mythical bird was said to live for hundreds of years. When its full span of life was completed it died in flames, rising again in a new form from the egg it had laid.

The Phoenix was adopted as a Christian symbol in the first century AD. It appears on funeral stones in early Christian art, churches, religious paintings, and stonework. The egg from which it rose has become our Easter egg. As with many symbols, the Easter egg has continued to shift. When the Lenten fast was adopted in the third and fourth centuries, observant Christians abstained from dairy products, including milk, cheese, butter, and eggs. In England, on the Saturday before Lent, it was common practice for children to go from door to door to beg for eggs—a last treat before the fast began.

Even the act of coloring eggs is tied to the idea of rebirth and resurrection. While egg decorating kits offer a vibrant means of decorating eggs today, the link between life and eggs was traditionally made by using a red coloring. Among Christians, red symbolizes the blood of Jesus. Among Macedonians, it has been a tradition to bring a red egg to Church and eat it when the priest proclaims "Christ is risen" at the Easter vigil and the Lenten fast is officially broken. 

I love the Easter traditions at Church. The lighting of the Easter candle reminds me of my childhood Diwali celebrations and the lighting of Christmas lights as they all represent means of driving away darkness. Ishtar may well have some connection to the rites of Spring, and admittedly Easter itself is an observance of Spring, but in an age when so much wrong has been done in the name of religion, and religion is a focal point for criticism and debate, it's worth remembering that the overlap of time and history has given us richer traditions than any of us can truly be aware of—and that memes shouldn't be taken at face value. 

References

Newall, Venetia. (1967) "Easter Eggs," The Journal of American Folklore Vol 80 (315): 3-32.

RE Hume, ed. (1931) The Thirteen Upanishads. London: 214-215

Notes:   Newall: 4    Hume: 214   Newall: 7   Newall: 14   Newall: 22

Krystal D'Costa is an anthropologist working in digital media in New York City. You can follow AiP on Facebook.

The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/beyond-ishtar-the-tradition-of-eggs-at-easter?utm_source=pocket-newtab

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Sr. Mary K.Keller 👩‍💻1st Person Earn Comp Sci PhD

Sister Mary Kenneth Keller

The first woman PERSON to earn a Ph. D. in computer sciences in the USA in 1965.   
And worked to expand access to computers in education.

Born:  December 17, 1913  Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Died:  January 10, 1985 (aged 71)  Dubuque, Iowa, United States
Alma Mater:  DePaul University (BS, MS) University of Wisconsin–Madison (PhD)
Known for:  BASIC   Scientific career
Institutions:  Clarke University
Thesis:  Inductive Inference on Computer Generated Patterns (1965)

March is Women's History Month

Let us remember Sr. Mary Kenneth Keller, BVM (Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) who brilliantly distinguished herself in the male-dominated field of computer science in the 60's. Not only is she the first American woman to receive a PhD in computer science, she also helped develop the BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming language with originators John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz. She pushed for the wider involvement of women in computing and urged the use of computers in education. She was a visionary regarding the potential for computers to improve access to information, as a valuable tool in learning, and in their importance in libraries. Six decades later, whether you're reading this from a mobile device, a desktop, or a laptop, know that a Catholic nun was among those who planted the seeds of modern information technology. Pax et bonum!

👩‍💻⌨️🖱️🖥️💽🖲️🖨️💾💻💿👨‍💻📀🖥️🖨️⌨️💻🖱️💽💾💿👩‍💻

Sister Mary Kenneth Keller

Mini Documentary
👇 ⌨️ 👇

https://youtu.be/T9IZ8UWGP04?si=bVcqfy-DWspgSybS

There are a few incorrect statements here.

- 0:29 She was born in December 1913, not 1914
- 0:39 She took her vows in 1935
- 0:45 Her bachelors ('43) was in mathematical sciences and her masters ('52) was in mathematics
- 1:48 She was possibly the first person, not just women, to get a doctorate degree although her and Irving C. Tang got their doctorates the same day, it is unclear about who got it first exactly. Although, she was definitely the first person to get a Ph.D. in CompSci bcs Irving got a D.Sc. Ph.D is a Doctor of Philosophy and a D.Sc. is a Doctor of Science (IDK why she got a Ph.D. and he got a D.Sc. couldn't find out) 

“73-year-young R. Buckminster Fuller is taking a two-day crash course in computer science and programming from Sister Mary Kenneth”.

Mary Kenneth Keller, B.V.M. was an American Catholic religious sister, educator and pioneer in computer science. She was the first person to earn a Ph.D. in computer science in the United States. Keller and Irving C. Tang were the first two recipients of computer science doctorates (Keller's Ph.D. and Tang's D.Sc. were awarded on the same day).

Keller was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 17, 1913, to John Adam Keller and Catherine Josephine (née Sullivan) Keller. She entered the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1932 and took her vows with that religious congregation in 1940. She completed both her B.S. (Bachelor of Science) in Mathematics in 1943 and her M.S. (Master of Science) in Mathematics and Physics in 1953 from DePaul University in Chicago. Keller earned her Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1965. Her dissertation, Inductive Inference on Computer Generated Patterns, focused on "constructing algorithms that performed analytic differentiation on algebraic expression, written in CDC FORTRAN 63."

Throughout Keller's graduate studies, she was affiliated with various institutions including the University of Michigan, Purdue, and Dartmouth. Many sources claim that Keller began working at the National Science Foundation workshop in 1958 in the computer science center at Dartmouth College, a male-only institution at the time, where she participated in the implementation of the first DTSS BASIC kernel for the language, working under John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz along with about a dozen other students. But this cannot be correct since Dartmouth did not acquire its first computer until 1959. Keller in fact was at Dartmouth sometime in 1961 when Dartmouth ALGOL 30 was being developed and used in undergraduate education.

Keller believed in the potential for computers to increase access to information and promote education. After finishing her doctorate in 1965, Keller founded the computer science department at Clarke College (now Clarke University), a Catholic women's college founded by Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dubuque, Iowa. That same year, that National Science Foundation awarded her a grant of $25,000 payable over two years for "instructional equipment for undergraduate education."One of the first computer science departments at a small college, Keller directed this department for twenty years. Clarke College now has the Keller Computer Center and Information Services, which is named after her and which provides computing and telecommunication support to Clarke College students, faculty members, and staff. The college has also established the Mary Kenneth Keller Computer Science Scholarship in her honor.

Keller was an advocate for the involvement of women in computing and the use of computers for education. She helped to establish the Association of Small Computer Users in Education (ASCUE). She went on to write four books in the field. At the ACM/SIGUCC User Services Conference in 1975, Keller declared "we have not fully used a computer as the greatest interdisciplinary tool that has been invented to date."

Keller died on January 10, 1985, at the age of 71.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kenneth_Keller 

Sr. Kenneth Gravestone at Mount Carmel, Dubuque, Iowa.

Final Days
Sister Kenneth was true to her mission to the end. A sign in her office read, “My life is a continuing changing awareness of God’s will for me”. Catherine Dunn, BVM remembers that even as Sister Kenneth was dying in a nursing home, she had a computer in her bedroom. She continued to work, plan nutritious meals, and give lessons to other sisters. Sister Kenneth did not want to die: she felt she still had work to do. Nevertheless, Bertha Fox, BVM, reports that her last words were, “Yes, yes.”  She died January 10, 1985.

To clarify, she was the first PERSON in the US to earn a PhD in Comp Sci - not just first woman.
👩‍💻⌨️🖱️🖥️💽🖲️🖨️💾💻💿👨‍💻📀🖥️🖨️⌨️💻🖱️💽💾💿👩‍💻
Breaking Barriers:

Mary Kenneth Keller
To clarify, she was the first PERSON in the US to earn a PhD in Computer Science - not just first woman.
👇 🖱️ 👇

https://youtu.be/Fxyjzp_4C6k?si=DF9GWqCl2JZJIdPG

Dive into the remarkable story of Mary Kenneth Keller, a pioneering nun who left an indelible mark on the world of technology and education. As the first woman in the United States to earn a PhD in Computer Science, Keller's legacy transcends her groundbreaking achievement, highlighting her pivotal role in the development of the BASIC programming language and her efforts to make computer science accessible to all.
*Video Highlights:*
*Trailblazing Achievements:* Learn how Mary Kenneth Keller broke barriers in 1965 by earning a PhD in Computer Science, a first for women in the U.S.

*BASIC Programming Language:* Discover Keller's instrumental role in creating BASIC, laying the groundwork for accessible computer programming education.
*Empowering Women in Tech:* Explore how Keller's work at Clarke College helped establish a foundation for women's significant contributions to technology.
*Why Watch?*
* Inspiration: Keller's story is a testament to the power of perseverance, vision, and the transformative impact of technology and education.
* Education:  Gain insights into the early days of computer science and the pivotal moments that shaped the tech world we know today.
* Empowerment:  Keller's legacy serves as a beacon for aspiring women in STEM, encouraging them to pursue their passions in technology and beyond.

1 -Sister Kenneth at an August 2/3, 1967 conference at Clarke College on Hospital and Medical Applications of Computers.
2 -Sister Kenneth (right) in April, 1984, demonstrating computing to BVM sisters Gladys Ramaley and Marian Delany

👩‍💻⌨️🖱️🖥️💽🖲️🖨️💾💻💿👨‍💻📀🖥️🖨️⌨️💻🖱️💽💾💿👩‍💻

Catholic Women 

Sister Mary Keller
👇 🖱️ 👇
https://youtu.be/0T9VUgZWEzg?si=9MyxxAc0MRjrKOhd

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The Legacy of Mary Kenneth Keller, First U.S. Ph.D. in Computer Science
https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2023/01/10076929/1LFQ2k1iy40
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Religious Scientists: Sr. Mary Kenneth Keller B.V.M. (1913-1985) – Computer Science
When I was little, my dad bought an Apple II+ computer.  Every Christmas, my uncle would send us a pack of computer games on 5.25-inch floppy disks. We spent countless hours playing those games on its primitive green pixelated screen.  It was fun to play games made by somebody else, but even better was when I learned to make the computer do what I wanted it to do, with a little programming.  I learned a very simple computer language called Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, or BASIC.  With it, I made my own games, limited only by my imagination and skill.  For the freedom that programming in BASIC gave me, I have to thank a nun: Sr. Mary Kenneth Keller.
https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/sacred-space-astronomy/religious-scientists-sr-mary-kenneth-keller-b-v-m-1913-1985-computer-science/
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Sister Mary Kenneth Keller (PhD, 1965): The first PhD in computer science in the US
Posted on March 18, 2019    
Keller was a trailblazer in higher education. She worked tirelessly to expand the reach of computer science. She was a founder of the Association of Small Computer Users in Education (ASCUE), an organization still active today that furthers the use of technology in education. She recognized the massive potential of the computer as an instructive tool.
https://www.cs.wisc.edu/2019/03/18/2759/

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