April Fool's Day History

April 1^st will no doubt be celebrated with an uncountable mass of practical jokes but what are we celebrating? Why did we choose this seemingly random day and decide to play pranks on each other? Where did it all begin?

Unlike most holidays that have a solid history April Fool’s Day (All Fool’s Day) has a past that is all but clear. There wasn’t a first All Fool’s Day recorded in history but rather a theory of when it all begins.

The year: 1582. The place: France. This is the closest we have come to identifying the beginning of this great holiday. Prior to 1582, the New Year was celebrated for eight consecutive days beginning on March 25^th with the biggest part of the celebration taking place on April 1st.  This guy named Charles the IX decided to reform the calendar and made New Year’s Day occur on January 1.

This idea seemed all fine and dandy but with communications being only as fast as one could walk across the country, there was more than likely a lot of confusion as it would have taken several years for the news to reach the outlying villages. On top of the poor communications, there were of course those rebels who refused to accept the new calendar and just kept on celebrating the New Year on April 1. These rebels were labeled “fools” by the general population and were ridiculed and often sent on wild goose chases (fools errands) and were the receiving in of many other practical jokes.

This harassment and ridicule evolved into a tradition of prank playing on April 1^st. The tradition eventually spread throughout Europe and then later introduced to the American colonies of the French and English both. April Fool’s Day was born.

This day of international fun and pranks has evolved into different nationalities specializing in specific pranks and in essence, have created their own brand of humor at the expense of friends and family.

In Scotland, they celebrate this wonderful holiday for two consecutive days of well thought out pranks. The second day is a day devoted purely to pranking the hind end of a person. There they call it Taily Day. I bet they get a lot of use out a “kick me” sign. Our Mexican neighbors celebrate this day on December 28^th in remembrance of King Herod slaughtering innocent children.

This is by far my favorite holiday because not because of the practical jokes but rather the elaborate practical jokes that last all day long and the pure fun of it all. For example, a British short film was once shown in on April Fool’s day that was a detailed documentary about how spaghetti farmers and how their precious crops from spaghetti trees.

I will end in saying that April Fool’s Day is a day of nothing but well needed stress relief in our ever-busy life of stress. No worrying about gifts, reservations, or sappy movie watching. Just a fun little holiday where one is constantly battling other’s in a game of wit and humor.