The Month of April get its name from the Greek goddess Aphrodite (her Roman incarnation is Venus) in both versions were love goddesses. April was a time of opening with the spring flowers blossoming and opening their petals to receive the sun’s life and blessing. The Anglo- Saxons called the month Eastermonath and is the month honoring the spring goddess Eostre which gives her name to the Christian festival of Easter. April 1st is April fool’s Day a time of the trickster and playing prank. Possibly the day comes from the Norse goddess Loki who was honored on April 1st. Loki is an ornery trickster spirit who was known form making mischief and causing trouble. This seems to also be related to court jesters of Medieval Europe who were the only figures who could tell king the truth and not suffer consequence. Unlike other holidays like Halloween that begin at sunset, April Fool’s Day starts in the morning. On the Norse calendar April 14th is the festival of Sommarsblot or their official beginning of summer. April 5th was the ancient Roman festival of Megalesia which was a festival f Fortuna, better known as Lady Luck. April 10th is the final day of the festival of Fortuna. Fortuna can be identified with Fates. April 12th was the festival of Cerealia which was an eight daylong celebration of Ceres, an earth goddess. Shei is guardian of the earth and the fruit harvest. Naturally April would be a time of the spring planting. April 13th was the day of the Roma festival of Libertas, a time to honor liberty. As I said above April 14th was the Norse celebration of Sommersblot the halfway point of the year. April 22 was a day honoring St. George who was also know as the dragon slayer. Today was a time to see procession of revelers of dragons, hobbyhorses, and giant effigies. One of George’s incarnations was Sigurd who was a similar monster. My own opinion was that the dragon represented winter with St. George who was summertime incarnate. April 25th was St. Marks day in which St. Mark was called upon to encourage the growth of the crops. It was also known as Cuckoo’s Day when the migratory birds came back from the south which was a clear sign of the return of summer. April 28th was the festival of Floralia, honoring the goddess Flora, the mother goddess of flower and youth. Beans and other seeds were tossed into crowd’s celebration the holiday and encouraging fertility of the land. April 31st was May Eve or Beltane Eve a time to light great bonfires to drive away the forces of darkness and evil. And so, it goes.