Spelljammer Comfirmed?!?!

[darjr]

Actually, no. But my reference was not well-thought, because "April Fish" is not an American or British trope, AFAIK, so it was probably unintelligible.

Oh. I meant in the tweet.

The tweet has a Cowboy Beebop reference. I think.

 

[CleverNickName]

I'm glad they used Spelljammer as their April Fool's Day joke.
I don't think my battered heart could have taken it if they had used Mystara instead.

 

[Parmandur]

The funniest would be if they then surprise-released Spelljammer later on, and said, "What? We confirmed this back in April!"

Actually fairly plausible.

 

[MarkB]

The funniest would be if they then surprise-released Spelljammer later on, and said, "What? We confirmed this back in April!"

Though if they do that in 2025, they've probably overplayed their hand.

 

[Parmandur]

While we don't entirely know the origins of April Fool's Day, there are a lot of details that build a convincing story.

April 1 was the start of the new year in the Julian calendar. It also coincided with the end of Lent. During this time, the Christian church forbade the eating of meat during Lent, but the eating of fish was tolerated. Fish was a popular gift for the New Year.

King Charles IX of France delivered an edict in 1564 that France was going to switch to the Gregorian calendar, moving the start of the year to January 1 starting in 1567. Some people didn't like the change and continued to celebrate the new year on April 1. Over time, the holdouts were mocked and had practical jokes played on them, including gifts of false (fake) fish.

Nowadays, it is common in francophone countries for children to try to surreptitiously stick a paper fish to the back of their target. When the fish is discovered, the instigator calls out « Poisson d'avril ! ». Back when we lived in Brooklyn, my children started hiding paper fish all over the place. We would find little paper fish hiding in nooks and crannies for months afterwards.

In the English speaking world, it does definitely coke from radical Protestants who resisted the switch to the Gregory's calander, whi hbchanged New Years from March 25 (the Feast of the Annunciation) to January 1 (the Feast of the Circumscisoj of the Lord, and the Octave of Christmas). Many in England didn't like the Pope stealing a week of their life, and continued to celebrate Julian March 25 (Gregorian April 1) as New Years, and still March.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

In the English speaking world, it does definitely coke from radical Protestants who resisted the switch to the Gregory's calander, whi hbchanged New Years from March 25 (the Feast of the Annunciation) to January 1 (the Feast of the Circumscisoj of the Lord, and the Octave of Christmas). Many in England didn't like the Pope stealing a week of their life, and continued to celebrate Julian March 25 (Gregorian April 1) as New Years, and still March.

Having done some preliminary work for a history dissertation involving Early Modern England I'll attest that 17th century English sources are an absolute pain. You have to both adjust for the difference in date and the difference in when they reckoned it to be what year. Even more of a pain is determining when secondary sources you may encounter have correctly done this or not.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

April 1 was the start of the new year in the Julian calendar. It also coincided with the end of Lent. During this time, the Christian church forbade the eating of meat during Lent, but the eating of fish was tolerated. Fish was a popular gift for the New Year.

King Charles IX of France delivered an edict in 1564 that France was going to switch to the Gregorian calendar, moving the start of the year to January 1 starting in 1567.

Note that the start of the year has no particular link to the Gregorian or Julian calendar (although when Britain did finally adopt the Gregorian calendar in the 18th century they did take it as an opportunity to switch when the legal year started).

The King of France did not issue a decree implementing the Gregorian calendar in 1567 because Pope Gregory did not promulgate his calendar until 1582. Both things were however part of a general trend towards calendar reform in the late 16th century, and many European countries moved the start of the year from points in the Spring to January 1st during this period.

This January 1 New Year's Day of course seems very logical and sensible to we people who have grown up under such a system, but the beginning of Winter really feels a lot less like a "new year" than some point in Spring, and the cause for the move had more to do with the cultural prestige of using the Ancient Roman New Year's date, a desire to synchronize once January 1 was winning out, and the fact that historically it was more feasible to feast at the beginning of Winter than at the end.

 

[Tormyr]

The King of France did not issue a decree implementing the Gregorian calendar in 1567 because Pope Gregory did not promulgate his calendar until 1582. Both things were however part of a general trend towards calendar reform in the late 16th century, and many European countries moved the start of the year from points in the Spring to January 1st during this period.

I guess Charles IX was just ahead of his time? Edict of Roussillon - Wikipedia