“Have a seat!” I’d say on April Fool’s Day, offering a classmate a little wooden chair. If she were foolish enough to accept my kindness, I’d jerk it back and she’d fall on her butt. Or I’d point to a friend’s shirt: “Oh my God! There’s a spider on your pocket!” He’d look, and everyone would laugh.

I’m sorry to say I delighted in these pranks, even occasionally when played on me.

There’s a certain jocular joy to April Fool’s Day that children and immature people love. And you can’t celebrate it alone. Jokes and pranks require others. Could even April Fool’s Day have a crazy spiritual aspect?

HOLY FOOLS

Every spiritual tradition has a wise fool. The Jewish tradition offers Badchan, the wedding jester, who warns the bride of the groom’s faults (We have to recognize the wisdom in that, no?) and whose quips can be quite off-color.

Yoeli Leibowitz, who travels the world as a Jewish jester, a badchan and a Purim rav, says: “I succeeded in making others laugh, and it changed their whole day… embittered individuals walked away from me with smiles on their faces.” He keeps his jokes kind and sees his humor as a calling.

Islam, too, has a joker, the Mullah Nasruddin, whose quips often involve relationships. For example, “Well, young man, I understand you want to become my son-in-law.”

“No Sir, not exactly,” (replies Nasruddin) “but if I marry your daughter, I don’t see how I can get out of it.”

OUTRAGEOUS FOLLY

Strangely, although I take spirituality seriously, I also love sacrilegious humor. One of my favorite jokes involves a German, an Irishman, and a Belgian. Each stands at St. Peter’s gate and is asked in turn, “What is Easter?”

The German says, “It’s a wonderful week in early February or so — I can never remember — when you drink beer with your friends and dance on tables and drink more beer and dance and fall over, and … ”

“You idiot! That’s Fasching,” says St. Peter and damns him to hell.

The Irishman proclaims Easter to be that grand day just before spring when any true Irishman dons the true color (which isn’t orange!) and maybe a shamrock besides, and leprechauns besport themselves, and … ”

“That’s St. Patrick’s Day, numbskull!” says St. Peter, and off to hell the Irishman tumbles.

Up comes the Belgian. “What is Easter?” asks St. Peter, sternly now.

“Well, let me give you a little background,” says the Belgian, straightening his bowtie. “On Good Friday, our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and they laid him in a tomb. On the third day, Easter morning, an angel of the Lord rolled away the stone, and out he came! And if he sees his shadow, we’ll have six more weeks of winter.”

WISE FOLLY

When we’re laughing, we’re in the present, not dreading the future or bemoaning the past. Hearing a funny joke, we’re connected, which makes it hard to be anxious. A recent Newsweek article on antidepressants mentioned that most antidepressants are actually prescribed for anxiety. Maybe foolishness has serious benefits?

FOLLY AND FRIENDSHIP

Folly has a high-class history. The noted scholar Erasmus played a joke on his close friend, Thomas More (Remember him from Man for all Seasons?), when he gave a talk, dressed as a fool, called In Praise of Folly (which, in Greek contained, a play on More’s name: Morias Enkomion) Erasmus called Folly not just a goddess, but the first goddess, and “the very essence of childhood.”

Folly, he said, allows us to be tolerant and even irrational, forgiving flaws. “What is it when one kisses his mistress’ freckle neck, another the wart on her nose?” Erasmus asks, “When a father shall swear his squint-eyed child is more lovely than Venus? What is this … but mere folly? … and yet ’tis this only that joins friends together and continues them so joined.”

Maybe it’s a good day to review that Calvin and Hobbes collection, pop in a Simpsons DVD, or call up a friends and ask if he has Mr. Clean in a can.