The History of April Fool's Day

Post date: April 15, 2024

By Peter Wolff

On April 1st, around the globe, practical jokes galore are played at the expense of others in the name of the day so well known and popularized in modern culture, April Fool’s Day. Yet little do we know about exactly how this “holiday” (For lack of a better term) exactly came about due to there being various testimonies as to whence it may have originated.

The most popular and likely of these theories is derived from the changing of the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 16th century France. For, in 1563 between the months of February and March, the French government decided to transition between the two calendars. As a result, word of mouth was heavily relied on to spread the news about the shift of dates and when the next New Year would officially start. More importantly, however, is that unlike its predecessor of the Julian calendar, the new Gregorian calendar would not begin on the Spring Equinox (Which happened to be April 1st), but rather on the first of January. This important piece of information, however, missed a few French citizens who began to celebrate the New Year as usual on April 1st and were dubbed, “April Fools” later being mocked for their “gullibility” (When in actuality, poor dispersal of information was to blame). In fact, the most common marking for such people who did not receive the news on time was to place a paper fish on their backs essentially calling them April Fish symbolizing them being easily fooled as they mostly did not notice the obvious paper fish attached to the back of their clothes.

The other tale which happens to be equally as likely, but was definitely not a major catalyst for April Fools as we know it today stems from the Romans in which they believed Mother Nature had the intent of pranking them throughout the span of April with unpredictable weather and that changed rapidly. 

There are many other theories as to its origins, but all of which remain undetermined in truth and merely possibilities (All above is mere speculation). But while we may not be able to pinpoint an exact starting point for a day filled with pranks, what we can narrow down is the region of origin for April Fools day which definitely did stem from the Southernmost countries of the European continent. We also can see that the nation which first truly coined the day as we now know it is the 18th century Englishmen who played jokes on one another including the classic, “Kick me” sign found all over in forms of media today.

What else we know for certain is that all around the globe, nations will ultimately unite under the common comedic drive that is earned solely through pranking and crafting up rather humorous jokes (Mostly puns) in a day of tomfoolery. A day of light hearted gags. And a day of egg-cellence (See what I did there).