April Fool’s Day History

 

 

April Fools gone past, and you’re the biggest fool at last.

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With the celebration of April Fool’s Day this week I got to thinking about the history of the Day. I had no clue, so I started my google search. I thought since I had no clue how the day got started, maybe there were others who were curious too.

April Fool’s Day - The Beginning

Infoplease.com stated:

Ancient cultures, including those of the Romans and Hindus, celebrated New Year's Day on or around April 1. It closely follows the vernal equinox (March 20th or March 21st.) In medieval times, much of Europe celebrated March 25, the Feast of Annunciation, as the beginning of the new year.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered a new calendar (the Gregorian Calendar) to replace the old Julian Calendar. The new calendar called for New Year's Day to be celebrated Jan. 1. That year, France adopted the reformed calendar and shifted New Year's day to Jan. 1.

For more of the article click here

April Fool’s Day Begins in Earnest

April-fools.us continues to tell us that:

Communication traveled slowly in those days and some people were only informed of the change several years later. Still others, who were more rebellious refused to acknowledge the change and continued to celebrate on the last day of the former celebration, April 1.

These people were labeled "fools" by the general populace, were subject to ridicule and sent on "fool errands," sent invitations to nonexistent parties and had other practical jokes played upon them. The butts of these pranks became known as a "poisson d'avril" or "April fish" because a young naive fish is easily caught. In addition, one common practice was to hook a paper fish on the back of someone as a joke.

This harassment evolved over time and a custom of prank-playing continue on the first day of April. This tradition eventually spread elsewhere like to Britain and Scotland in the 18th century and was introduced to the American colonies by the English and the French. Because of this spread to other countries, April Fool's Day has taken on an international flavor with each country celebrating the holiday in its own way. For the entire article click here.

My Share of April Fool’s Day Jokes

My mom told the story of an April Fool’s Day joke that turned upside down for her. Back when she was in grammar school around 1920 she and a lot of her classmates decided to write April Fool’s Day on their spelling test and turn it in without the spelling words written. Come to find out she was the only one who really did it. Everyone else chickened out. She alone got a big fat “F” for the test. She didn’t think it was very funny after that.

I was never very good at playing April Fool’s Day jokes on people. My kids were tho. I don’t think I had many April Fool’s Days that went by without someone doing something. I had my share of “Mom, I’m pregnant” or “Mom, I am flunking out of school” shared with me. I am sure they did more interesting jokes on their siblings and friends but I was never privy to those. I might not have seen the humor in them.

Well Known April Fool’s Day Pranks

Urbanlegends.about.com goes on to tell us about some of the well known April Fool’s Day pranks:

One of the great media hoaxes of all time was perpetrated on April 1, 1957 by the BBC, which reported on its news program Panorama that Switzerland was experiencing a bumper spaghetti harvest that year thanks to favorable weather and the elimination of the dread "spaghetti weevil." Staged video footage showing happy peasants plucking strands of pasta from tall trees was so convincing that many viewers actually called the network to ask how they could grow their own.

Some of the best-known pranks in recent years were mounted by advertising agencies. In 1996, Taco Bell ran a full-page ad in the New York Times announcing it had purchased the Liberty Bell and would rename it the "Taco Liberty Bell."

Burger King pulled off a similar prank in 1998, announcing the rollout of its "Left-Handed Whopper" supposedly designed so that condiments would drip from the right side of the burger rather than the left.

On the Internet hoaxes have become such standard fare that April Fools' Day is barely distinguishable from any other, though a few notable pranks stand out and tend to be reposted year after year — e.g., the 1996 announcement that every computer connected to the World Wide Web must be turned off for Internet Cleaning Day, a 24-hour period during which useless "flotsam and jetsam" are flushed from the system.

For the rest of the Urbanlegends article click here.

Love to Blog

I really enjoy researching and sharing the history of some of the holidays. I love to learn and I love to blog and share. I sure hope you enjoyed learning about the origin of April Fool’s Day.

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 Have an awesome day,
Charyl aka Mom8isme