April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 30 days. Derived from the Latin aprilis, either from the Latin word aperire which means "to open", probably referring to growing plants in spring, or from the Etruscan name Apru for Aphrodite.

April in poetry

Poets identify April with the end of winter, but they don't necessarily agree on what that means:

• We start with the proverb

April showers bring May flowers

• In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer found only cause for celebration:

Whan that April with his showres soote (that is, sweet)

The droughte of March hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veine in swich licour,

Of which vertu engendred is the flowr; (ll. 1-4)

Modernized for The Norton Anthology of English Literature

• T. S. Eliot, on the other hand, opened The Waste Land with an ironic glance at Chaucer:

April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

• Spring - Edna St. Vincent Millay

To what purpose, April, do you return again?

Beauty is not enough.

You can no longer quiet me with the redness

Of little leaves opening stickily.

I know what I know.

The sun is hot on my neck as I observe

The spikes of the crocus.

The smell of the earth is good.

It is apparent that there is no death.

But what does that signify?

Not only under ground are the brains of men

Eaten by maggots.

Life in itself

Is nothing,

An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.

It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,

April

Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

Events in April

• April Fool's Day occurs on April 1.
• Easter occurs on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25 inclusive.
• April is National Autism Awareness Month in the United States
• In the Irish Calendar the month is called Aibreán and is the third and last month of Spring.

Trivia

• April begins on the same day of week as July in all years and also January in leap years.

• April's flower is the daisy.
• April's birthstone is the diamond.

See also

• Historical anniversaries

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