For each day of the year, there is a special holiday ranging from National Scrabble Day to Earth Day. Don’t think that this is an April Fools’ joke, it’s true. In the month of April, embrace the spring vibes and explore a new holiday.  

   The month of April begins with a meaningful holiday for many pranksters: April Fools’ Day.

   “For me, April Fools’ Day means to play some harmless pranks on family and friends. Annually, my siblings and I will set some ground rules and mess with one another,” junior Mariam Toure said. “The best way to celebrate this holiday is to make others laugh, and joke around. I think one of my favorite pranks was when Google pranked [in April 2022] the internet that pigeons pecked away to find our random searches on Google.”

   In addition to the U.S. version of this festivity, France recognizes this holiday through Poisson d’Avril, which translates to April fish. 

   “It’s kind of ambiguous how the holiday started. There’s some speculation that it might have to do with when the new year calendar used to start on April 1, and also with lent ending, and during that you can’t eat meat, but you can eat fish,” French teacher Celeste Loia said. “It’s kind of the same spirit as April Fool’s Day where you prank people, try to trick them, but they also will have fish. I think back in the day there used to be real fish. But now you can color fish and you try to tape them to people’s back and then it’s like, ‘Haha, Poisson d’Avril.’”

   Some students feel that there is less time to celebrate holidays in high school, however it is still fun to be a part of the festivities now. 

   “For me, my favorite holiday in April is April Fools’ Day. It was more fun when I was little though because people would go around and make little jokes and we would all laugh about it, but now once people get older it’s not as important and people kind of see it as childish in a way,” junior Lisa Wang said. “One time I tried to make my sister eat whipped cream but it was actually shaving cream. Unfortunately she didn’t fall for it, but we all got a good laugh out of it.” 

   Patriots’ Day is another main holiday during April that commemorates the soldiers who fought during the American Revolutionary War. The Boston Marathon also occurs on this day, which enables people to acknowledge the holiday more.

   “My dad was a runner growing up so he had run a bunch of marathons and it was kind of a goal of mine,” English teacher Alicia Collins said. “I would never do a marathon without a good crowd because the crowds can kind of carry you along. Boston is just amazing, from the bands that are playing in Framingham and playing rock music to Heartbreak Hill, you have people who really know how badly you’re probably feeling at that point and are so encouraging and handing you oranges and things like that. So I think without having a crowd to cheer you along, a marathon would be torturous.”

   Although getting involved in some holidays can be intimidating at first, such as running the Boston Marathon, teachers and students feel that it is a beneficial experience. 

   “I really think everyone can run it, if you train. Everyone should do it at some point in their life because it’s just an amazing, almost life changing experience,” English teacher Alicia Collins said. “The training also is a lot of work and a really good feeling of accomplishment. And then of course finishing it gives you this incredible confidence.”

   Another major holiday in April is Earth Day, which is a holiday that helps advocate for environmental protection. 

   “Earth Day is April 22nd, which is usually over our vacation week. It was started in the 70s as a way of focussing the country on the environment for a day,” science teacher Janet Kresl Moffat said. “Lots of different organizations have focussed on cleaning up or learning something more about how you can keep the world sustainable. SEA club’s number one activity is to have an all campus cleanup which we will be doing during the advisory block on April 13th.”

   Students for Environmental Action (SEA) club are eager to introduce new and easy methods to slowly make the world more green.

   “I personally feel the issue with climate change is people are not knowledgeable about the long term effects and think it is not a serious issue, but research on the subject can enhance a person’s care of the environment,” freshman and member of SEA club Sebastian Smith said. “Other things people can do is to make sure they recycle their recyclables all the time instead of throwing them out, which I see frequently. Another way is to shorten showers to maybe five minutes instead of 10 plus. Biking to school instead of getting droven can conserve CO2 emissions.”

   In addition to the science part of this holiday, students and faculty can get involved politically in order to advocate for more positive change. One such student who got involved in the government legislation  associated with climate change is SEA club president and junior Jonathan Lan, who lobbied house representatives for around one week to learn more about two climate change resolutions. 

   “One of them is for climate education which is pushing for a solution based, multidisciplinary climate education in schools. In Weston, climate change is only taught in select years. I think it’s 7th or 8th grade and you can take environmental science, and maybe in contemporary world issues you can learn about climate change, but we don’t learn about it in history class, social studies classes, politics classes,” Lan said. “ The other resolution is related to mental health with regards to climate change. It’s not great to learn about the problem and not the solution, so the mental health resolution will also provide that support for students.”

   Bringing more visibility to special holidays allows students and faculty to be aware of how they can make a positive difference in the world. 

   “I think it’s like every holiday. The number one thing is just to take a moment to appreciate what people have done and what needs to get done,” Kresl Moffat said. “Sometimes people are like ‘Oh my gosh! In order to do this, I’m not willing to change my whole life.’ Well, fine if you don’t want to change your whole life, but what small choices can you make?”

   Although it can be difficult to visualize the change people are making towards ending climate change, being involved in policy making is one way students can effectively make a change in the world, and recognizing Earth Day facilitates the growth of passion for accomplishing these goals.  

   “I think a solution-based climate education is important because it gives students the tools to actually fight against climate change and take action at their age. That will look like lobbying representatives, organizing community wide events, and going through that sort of change is honestly more powerful than recycling or composting,” Lan said.

   Students and faculty find that holidays make regular school days at WHS more exciting, which refreshes peoples’ minds. If you want to find something new each day, search for holidays online to explore them. Each holiday offers a unique experience that allows people to learn more about different cultures, societies, and history of the past and future.