All About the Month of April

“April showers bring May flowers.” April is one of the prettiest months, without a doubt. Warm, but not too hot weather, butterflies frolicking among the flowers, and a sense that summer is coming. It’s a beautiful month and very rarely does anyone say that they don’t care for April. But what exactly is so special about April?

Religious Holidays—and More!

As far as holidays, April may not have many, but there are quite a few important ones thrown in there. So what are these holidays?

First of all, you have Passover. It is an eight day long Jewish Holiday celebrating the Exodus from Egypt. After the first nine plagues (water turned to blood, lice, untreatable boil, death of livestock, locusts, flies, hail and thunder, frogs, and darkness. In no particular order.), the Hebrews were instructed to put the blood of a spring lamb over their door so that the last plague wouldn’t affect them. According to the Old Testament, when Pharoh awoke, he saw that his first born son had died and finally let them go. However, he made chase afterwards and was killed in the Red Sea.

Next, you have Palm Sunday, commemorating when Jesus walked into Jerusalem and people laid down palm leaves. This celebrates the story of him arriving on a donkey.

Good Friday is the day that Jesus was actually crucified. Keep in mind that they aren’t saying it’s a good thing—the original translation was “pious”. So “pious” Friday would be more appropriate.

Then there’s Easter, which is the day that Jesus rose. It’s usually celebrated with Easter eggs or candy, depending on where you live. (This only sometimes falls in April.)

Easter Monday is the Monday after Easter. It’s not celebrated by everyone, but children used to get Easter Monday off before restrictions were placed on religion in the schools.

Patriots Day is a civic holiday that celebrates the Battles of Lexington and Concord—those who live in Massachusetts are extremely proud of this holiday, as well as those who live in Maine. These are the two states where it is celebrated, although it has recognition in Wisconsin also.

Then there is Arbor Day, an international holiday that encourages people to plant trees and help protect those that they have already.  Learn more about Arbor Day Here.

Finally, Stars, Flowers, and Birthstones!

Now onto horoscopes—there are, like the other months, two horoscope signs present in the month of April. These are Aries and Taurus. Aries and Taurus are both very strong willed signs. The symbols of these signs, respectively are the sheep and the bull.

Aries are very honest, very blunt, and very passionate. Aries are highly motivated and are normally the ones willing to take the first step in a project or when confronted with something new.

Taurus’s are very stubborn, but good natured and very knowledgeable. They generally take on one or two hobbies that they master, but still keep a good general knowledge store. A Taurus is more than willing to give credit where it’s due and they’re more concerned with being happy with themselves than others being happy with them. If you ask a Taurus if they like something, they’ll most likely say, “Do YOU like it?”

The flower of April is the daisy and the birthstone is the diamond. These were just a few important things that you may not have known about the month of April.