The History of April Fools’ Day

Have you ever wondered why you play pranks on people one specific day of the year? Unless, of course, you play pranks on people all the time, but that is beside the point. April Fools’ Day is a tradition that has been celebrated for many years. Yet, does anyone know where exactly the celebration came from? 

There are no traces to a single event that started April Fools’ Day, although there are various speculations. According to History, one of the assumptions is that the celebration dates back to 1582. This is the year France “switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.” In the Julian calendar, the year started around April 1st, when the spring equinox takes place, compared to the Gregorian that starts January 1st. Well, some folks were not alerted or paid attention to the fact that the calendars had changed, so they continued to celebrate the “new year” as if it were still in April. Because of this, those people “became the butt of jokes and hoaxes,” and were eventually known as “April fools.” Being an April fool brought many practical jokes, such as putting a paper fish on one’s shirt to symbolize them being “caught” as gullible. Now, that can be related to the classic “tape a sign to someone’s shirt.” 

Another speculation of where the day of jokes started is from an ancient festival in Rome commonly known as “Hilaria.” According to The Washington Post, this festival was celebrated in late March and entailed dressing up in masquerade, playing games, and “whiling away the day with relentless mocking.” Now, I think we all know we do not dress up for April Fools’, but we certainly play games… for some, those games may or may not include mockery. 

The last theory is that April Fools’ Day has ties to Mother Nature. History says that there was “changing, unpredictable weather” on the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and Mother Nature is to blame for playing this joke. 

There is no true answer as to how April Fools’ Day started, but everyone seems to enjoy it anyhow. According to History, the tradition began in “Britain during the 18th century.” Scotland soon adopted the celebration and expanded it over the course of two days, sending foolish people on trips to have others follow them and play pranks. 

Since this is a tradition that has been around for many, many years, there are a tremendous amount of “pranks” or “games” that could be deemed as historical. According to The Washington Post, one of these includes the spaghetti harvest that takes place every year in Italy. This joke was aired on television in 1957 as a commercial on the “British News Network.” Viewers, more than there should have been, contacted the station after seeing the commercial asking how they could plant a spaghetti tree for themselves. I guess that is one way to prove that Italy is famously known for its pasta. There are various jokes that could be mentioned, but for the sake of time, I will stop there. 

Now, what are your plans for April Fools’ Day? Will you be plotting pranks to play on your roommate or family member? Or will you be the victim of the joke? Either way, happy April Fools’!

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