Gas station eclipse glasses might make for a good April Fool’s gift

The first day of April will come to pass on Monday, and this coming month looks to be one with much to look forward to.

Monday being April 1 means that Monday is also April Fool’s Day, aka, All Fool’s Day. The origins of this annual day of tricks and pranks is unknown, but references to it go back hundreds of years. Some say it originally commemorated the day that Noah erroneously sent the first dove out of the ark before the waters of the famous flood had fully abated.

Stargazers in the reading audience will notice in April that the planet Jupiter will begin to sink lower each night until it almost reaches the horizon. If you get up early on the morning of April 6, you’ll be able to see the waning crescent moon form a triangle with the planets Saturn and Mars low in the east around 6 a.m. The next day around 6:15 a.m., the thin crescent moon will stand to the right of Venus, low on the eastern horizon.

The following Monday is April 8 which will bring a rare total solar eclipse to parts of the United States. Alabama does not fall in the path of totality for this event, so we will only see a partial eclipse in our neck of the woods. With that said, I’ve already seen where some local gas stations are selling “eclipse glasses” so that you can safely watch the eclipse without burning your eyeballs out.

April 8 will also mark the Christian holiday known as the Annunciation. Many will remember from Sunday School that this day commemorates the day that the angel Gabriel visited Mary to tell her that she would give birth to a son named Jesus. This event is said to have happened in the city of Nazareth, which was Jesus’s hometown. Today Nazareth has a population of around 78,000, only 31 percent of which are Christian.

April’s full moon, known as the Full Pink Moon, will make its appearance at 6:49 p.m. on April 23. The Pink Moon is the first full moon of spring, and its name is a reference to the colors of flowers that typically arrive in the warmer weather of the new season. Weather folklore tells us that April’s full moon will usually bring us a frost, which should come as no surprise given all the thunder we had in February.

My trusty copy of “The Old Farmers Almanac” says that poplar trees will begin leafing out around April 27. Poplars, sometimes called cottonwoods, have some spooky traditions attached to them. Ancient Europeans thought these trees carried some connection to the afterlife and believed that they sometimes carried the memories of the dead.

April 30 is what the old folks used to call May Eve. Others called it Walpurgis Night. Although it takes its name from Saint Walpurga, this old holiday was part of many ancient May Day festivities that took place on the following day.