APRIL FOOLS' DAY

APRIL FOOLS’ DAY ORIGIN

Claim: April Fools’ Day began in the l500s when the Gregorian calendar took over from the Julian. Those forgot the change and attempted to celebrate New Year’s (previously celebrated on the 1st of April) on the wrong date were teased as “April fools.”

How the custom of pranking on April 1 came about remains shrouded in mystery.

When the western world employed the Julian calendar, years began on March 25. Festivals making the start of the New Year were celebrated on the first day of April because March 25 fell during Holy Week. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar during the 1500s moved the New Year to January 1. According to the most widely-believed origin postulated for April Fools Day, those could be tricked into believing April 1 was still the proper day to celebrate the New Year earned the sobriquet of April fools. To the end, French peasants would unexpectedly drop in on neighbors on the day in a effort to confuse them into thinking they were receiving a New Year’s call. Out of that one jape supposedly grew the tradition of testing the patience of family and friends.

But that’s only one theory. Others are:

The timing of this day of pranks seems to be related to the arrival of spring, when nature “fools” mankind with fickle weather, according to the Encyclopedia of Religion and Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Others theorize it may have something to do with the Vernal Equinox.

Some think to tie in with the Roman’s end-of-winter celebration, Hilaria, and end of the Celtic new year festival.

Also called All Fools’ Day, April Fools’ Day has been observed for centuries in several countries. The timing of the holiday seems related to the vernal equinox (one of the two days in the year when the sun is exactly above the equator, and nighttime and daytime are the same length.) The vernal equinox marks the beginning of spring (usually around March 21), when nature “fools” mankind with sudden changes in the weather.

Have you ever played a joke on someone and then, just when that person has fallen for it, said April’s Fools”? April 1 is known as April Fools’ Day, and, although no one really knows how the holiday began, it’s a great chance to play a joke on someone—as long as the joke is harmless. April Fools’ Day gives every one a chance to play “the fool.” In France the fooled person is called poisson d’avril (“April fish”), and in Scotland the person is called a gowk (cuckoo), the symbol of a simpleton.