April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers

April is a big month for us.

April 4: Danny's birthday
April 7: Aunt Cathie's birthday
(April 15: tax day)
April 23: mom's birthday, also my name day*
April 28: dad's birthday
April 29: my birthday
April 30: Matt's birthday

• April's birthstone is diamond, which symbolizes innocence.
• Its birth flower is the daisy and sweet pea.

* Name Days, not birthdays, are celebrated in Greece. Great significance is attached to the name given a child, and the process of choosing a name follows fairly rigid conventions. The idea of a baby being given a name just because the parents like the sound of it is unknown in Greece. Even naming a child after someone as a mark of respect or admiration is unusual.

Children are never named after parents, but the eldest son in a family is often called after his paternal grandfather and the oldest daughter after her paternal grandmother. Names are usually of religious origin. Each island or area in Greece has a patron saint, and people living in that area often name a child after its patron saint.

Each saint has a special feast day. A person's name day is the feast day of the saint after which they were named. On someone's name day, open house is held and a feast is laid on for the friends and neighbours who call. They will give a small gift to the person whose names day it is, but there is less emphasis on the giving of presents than there is in birthday celebrations.

These April Fool's Hoaxes are pretty funny.

#5 Best Hoax: San Serriffe
1977: The British newspaper The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement devoted to San Serriffe, a small republic said to consist of several semi-colon-shaped islands located in the Indian Ocean. A series of articles affectionately described the geography and culture of this obscure nation. Its two main islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. Its capital was Bodoni, and its leader was General Pica. The Guardian's phones rang all day as readers sought more information about the idyllic holiday spot. Only a few noticed that everything about the island was named after printer's terminology. The success of this hoax is widely credited with launching the enthusiasm for April Foolery that gripped the British tabloids in subsequent decades.