History of April Fool

April Fool’s Day — All Fool’s Day

The first of April some do say
Is set apart for All Fools’ Day;
But why the people call it so,
Nor I, nor they themselves, do know,
But on this day are people sent
On purpose or pure merriment.
-Poor Robin’s Almanac (1760)

The Most Widespread Theory:

The history of April Fool’s Day, also called All Fool’s Day, remains clouded. The theory about the reform of the Gregorian calendar in the late sixteenth-century, is likely to be the most widespread and most accepted.

France was the first country to switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1582. Pope Gregory XIII introduced the calendar for the Christian world. The significance of this switch was that the beginning of the year has moved from April 1st to January 1st.
However, there were some people who did not hear about the switch or did not believe it or just refused to accept the change of the date and they continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April 1st. Others took this opportunity to play tricks on them and called them “April Fools”. In essence, they tried to make them believe that something false was actually true and send them on a “Fools Errand”. Today in France, April 1st is called “Poisson d’Avril”, April Fish. The children of France fooling their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends back and when they discover the prank, the prankster yells “Poisson d’Avril”, (April Fish!).

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“The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year. ”
– American humorist Mark Twain

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The calendar change hypothesis could be the possible explanation why April 1st was the choice of April Fools Day, but the theory does not explain how April Fool’s Day spread from France to the protestant countries such as England, Scotland and Germany. The Gregorian calendar had not been adopted until the eighteenth-century by this countries, but the tradition of April Fool’s Day was long establish by that time throughout Europe.

 

A small video enjoy…. happy april fools day….