by Caroline Dalzell

Created on: March 31, 2009

Also known as All Fools' Day, April Fools' Day is a day of fun and games. For the pranksters at least! The day of jests has been observed for hundreds of years but its origins are a mystery.

The most popular explanation is that it originated in France with the adoption of a new calendar. For many moons, most ancient cultures celebrated the New Year between 25 March and 1 April. This was know as the Julian calendar, which had 1 April as New Year's Day. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered the take-up of a new calendar which had New Year's Day as 1 January: the Gregorian calendar. The story goes that many did not realise this new calendar had come into force, whilst others simply rebelled and refused to recognise the new system. Those who continued to celebrate 1 April as New Year's Day were taunted by others, sent on "Fools' errands" (ie pointless errands for non-existent items) and generally had their gullibility put to the test. This practice of taunting/teasing soon spread throughout Europe.

The only snag with this otherwise excellent explanation is that England only adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752 but April Fools' Day was already well established by this point...

Other suggestions include Spring fever: perhaps there is simply something about this time of year that results in foolishness. Different cultures have had days of fun festivals starting around 1 April, for example the Romans celebrated Hilaria on 25 March to celebrate the resurrection of Attis perhaps 1 April was to tie in with this? The other link with seasons is to do with Spring being a time of nature "fooling" us with the changeable weather.

No matter the origins, it is a day or rather half a day, of playing tricks on your fellow man. The French call it "Poisson d'Avril" which means "April Fish" and refers to fact these are young fish and easily caught. Those who believe you can only play pranks until midday also believe that tricksters after this time are the fools.

One of the best hoaxes of recent times has to be the BBC's Panorama show's report on the "Swiss Spaghetti Harvest". This mockumentary of 1957 had viewers believing spaghetti grows on tress in Switzerland, thanks to scientists being able to defeat the spaghetti weevil which had wreaked havoc on previous harvests! Another amusing joke was one played by Joseph Boskin, professor of history at Boston University. Boskin published an article in the Associated Press in 1983 claiming that April Fools' Day originated during the reign of Constantine: some jesters had told the Roman emperor they could do a better job of running the empire. This apparently amused Constantine so much that he allowed one jester, Kugel, to be king for the day. Kugel passed a law calling for absurdity on that day and the custom soon became an annual event. It later turned out that Boskin had made the whole thing up! And in 1992, the National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation programme announced that Richard Nixon, in a surprise move, had decided to run for presidency again. His new slogan was "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." Genius.

So, whatever your strategy on 1 April, be it one of prankster or one of prankster-avoidance, I think Mark Twain summed up the day perfectly: "The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year".

I am off to be foolish, for tomorrow is just another day...

(Sources: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/; http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aprilfools1.html; http://www.snopes.com/holidays/aprilfools/origins.as p; http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A516791

Learn more about this author, Caroline Dalzell.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.