Celebrating Fools

I have never liked April 1 – in fact, have always disliked it. Not that I haven’t had my share of pranks played on me… I was never into it, and I always thought my peer group would grow out of it. Apparently this was not the case, as I found out on Saturday, when I received an SMS from a friend who gave me a piece of news that had me thrilled to bits. Only later did I find out (that too when I called her up to congratulate her) that the entire thing was an April fool’s joke.

Feeling (suitably) foolish, I was thinking about the ‘specialness’ of the whole thing, and kept wondering… what kicks do people get from playing pranks on others? In my friends’ case (silly her!) she didn’t realize that her joke was perhaps more detrimental to her than anyone else because it involved hers and another person’s feelings. But the thing I have never been able to understand is why do people get so excited about making a fool of people? It’s not a nice feeling to be hurt or making an ass out of yourself. Then why do it to other people?

Better still, why make a universally celebrated day?