Opinion : No fooling: April brings some interesting holidays

“I’m just a fool for April.”

Thus begins what I believe to be the only country song dedicated to a month.

But Colin Raye’s song is more than a sentimental tribute to the changes in the weather that April brings. It’s a reminder that many significant things happen this time each year.

Besides being Buddha’s birthday (The big ol’ boy would have turned approximately 2,574 years old on April 8, if he would have taken his diet and exercise regime a little more seriously), there are lots of reasons to celebrate this month with a country song. Some of them are serious; others are as silly as most country songs.

There are, according to the calendar, about 40 events, holidays, occasions or birthdays to mark, commemorate, or buy something for someone on in April.

The good news about this April calendar is that there are no “or else” occasions. There are, as far as I can tell, no holidays for which you could be punished for forgetting. However: Remember, your wife’s birthday isn’t on this calendar; neither is your anniversary. It’s up to you to remember these occasions with appropriate expressions of affection, devotion and loyalty.

Still, there are several interesting dates to note in this month.

April, for example, brings us Professional Secretaries Week. It is also brings National Lingerie Week. If you choose to commemorate these occasions by purchasing related items for the significant people in your home and office, do NOT inadvertently (or otherwise) send the wrong gift to the wrong person. Otherwise you may have some explaining to do.

We also mark National Stress Week this month. That may explain that uneasy feeling you feel in your stomach. Or maybe that feeling is caused by too much celebrating of April as National Pecan Month. Perhaps, though, it was caused by the fact that next week, Americans will observe the anniversaries of the Waco fire, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Columbine High School massacre.

Of course, April also brings Organize your Files Week and you know how much stress that causes.

April is also the time to celebrate U.S./Canada Goodwill Week. No, this particular week is not the seven days when two entire countries get together to celebrate my favorite place to shop; it is celebrating the fact that we have not been shooting at Canadians nor they at us for a very long time.

April also contains both Hairstylist Appreciation Day ad National Child Care Professionals Day. So in the same month you can thank those who fix your hair and those who have pulled theirs out.

Also, this month, are National Playground Safety Day, as well as Take Our Daughters to Work Day. That only makes sense, because hey, with all that dangerous playground equipment at schools and parks, the safest place for a girl to be is at work.

But on some years, Babe Ruth Day (April 27) is commemorated on the same day as Take Our Daughters to Work day. I think it’s utterly unfair to make all those girls go to work when they really ought to be at a ball park learning about the Bambino.

April also brings us Reading is Fun Week. Of course, all this reading is going to require the chopping down of trees for paper. But not to worry. April also brings us Arbor Day. Or it used to. We have replaced Arbor Day with Earth Day. Instead of planting trees, the people who claim to love the earth gather at parks to protest the fact that there are not enough people planting trees.

It’s no wonder that April is also National Humor Month – it brings us so many things to laugh at.